


Family Affairs

by manic_intent



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV Show), The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Post-Canon, Don't Like Don't Read, Full spoilers, Incest, M/M, Multi, NOTE: MOST OF THIS STORY IS T-RATED, Post-Canon, Sibling Incest, That Postcanon story where the Hargreeves siblings face their greatest challenge yet, trying to become less of a trash fire
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-18
Updated: 2019-03-04
Packaged: 2019-10-30 20:57:13
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 58,519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17836067
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/manic_intent/pseuds/manic_intent
Summary: “This isn’t going to work,” Diego said, once everyone had stopped moaning on the grass and/or throwing up.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Incest is canonical in the comics and in the tv show, what with Allison and Luther. But just in case you wandered here without reading my tags, warning for sibling incest, don’t like, don’t read. There won’t be anything above PG13 while they’re still in their kid forms because I don't like tripping the underage tag. 
> 
> Spoilers for the tv show, so:
> 
> s
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> p
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> o
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> i
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> l
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> e
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> r
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> s
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> For those few readers of mine who don't have Netflix or don't want to watch the show, the Umbrella Academy is sort of like a dark X-Men, aka what happens when you give an eccentric billionaire custody of 7 superpowered children. They grow up with all sorts of psychoses. Here's the trailer, which I can't seem to embed: 
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMeqY7ogdF8
> 
> Basically what happens is, in an AU where JFK was never assassinated, there were 43 virgin births in October 1989. Eccentric Billionaire/Inventor/Adventurer Sir Reginald Hargreeves adopts 7 of them and doesn't bother giving them names but numbers. They're named by the robot nanny/mom he makes for them and he turns them sort of into a crime-fighting group, but his real objective is to get them to stop the scheduled apocalypse in 2019. Many shenanigans happen and it turns out that Number 7/Vanya, the one who everyone thought had no powers, is actually very powerful and is the one who starts the apocalypse due to misunderstandings and bad decisions from everyone. Best description of all the characters:
>
>> In which Klaus Hargreeves spills his soul and some tea. The Umbrella Academy is now streaming. [pic.twitter.com/ih6HHOht4T](https://t.co/ih6HHOht4T)
>> 
>> — Umbrella Academy (@UmbrellaAcad) [February 18, 2019](https://twitter.com/UmbrellaAcad/status/1097570179259817989?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)
> 
> They pretty much mess up stopping the apocalypse and have to go back in time to try again. 
> 
> **Further Disclaimer** : I don't often read cast interviews or follow actor twitters, so I'm going to inevitably get canon details wrong. E.G.: When I was writing Chapter 11, Ben's actor Justin Min started updating his twitter again, and he mentioned to a fan that Ben actually died years after childhood -- he looks like an adult because he really is frozen at the time of death. I don't really want to go back and edit my story to make it canon compliant, so. AU :)

“This isn’t going to work,” Diego said, once everyone had stopped moaning on the grass and/or throwing up. He looked himself over and pulled a face. Shit. He had _not_ missed being a kid. Same knobby knees, same skinny wrists. And this godawful school uniform. The blazer depressed his soul. 

“Fuck off,” Five said. He was lying on his back under a tree with an arm over his eyes. They were in a park close to the house, huddled under the trees off the track. “I have the most brilliant headache, my stomach feels like it’s trying to crawl down and out through my ass, and every word you say is making it crawl just a little faster.” 

“Am I going to have pimples again? I did not miss my pimple stage,” Klaus said, just as Allison yelped and pointed behind him. “Very funny, Allison. I might be fourteen or twelve or however old we are again now, Jesus on a stick I didn’t miss my pre-puberty voice, but that’s not going to work on me anymore, my brain is still that of a cynical—”

“She means I’m alive, jackass,” Ben said. He was patting his cheeks, staring at his hands. It _was_ Ben. He’d always had this strange way of smiling, starting small, the curl stealing slowly over his mouth until it lit up his face. Diego walked over, clasping Ben by the hand. Warm. He was warm. Diego laughed. He hauled Ben close and hugged him, ignoring Ben’s flinch. 

“For saving my life,” Diego said, because he took debts like that seriously. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that it was you and not Klaus.”

“Hey,” Klaus said. He grinned, though. 

“You’re welcome.” Ben squirmed free. He looked around instead of trying his best to fade into the background like the Ben that Diego was used to. “So. What do we do? About Vanya?” 

“Well,” Allison said, her hands curled into tight fists, “if anyone even _suggests_ killing her to stop the apocalypse, I’m going to Rumour that person into a chicken.”

“Can you even do that?” Luther said. 

“Wanna find out?” Allison growled. They glared at each other, Allison somehow still radiating menace even in her tiny form. For years, Allison had been the tiniest. The moment she’d hit her growth spurt and then some, she’d never let the rest of them forget it. 

“If the point is to stop the apocalypse,” Diego said, holding up his hands hastily when Allison swung her glare toward him, “it’s sort of the neatest solution. Just saying.” 

“I can’t believe you. I can’t believe all of you. Vanya is our _sister_. She’s as much a victim of everything that happened as we are.” Allison knelt beside where Luther had set Vanya’s body down, cradling her unconscious head on her lap. 

Diego glanced at Five, who wasn’t saying anything. “It might be the easy way out,” Ben said, “but what with people like the time-traveling police or whoever they are out there, won’t they just correct it? Come back in time to stop us from coming back in time to murder Vanya back in time?”

Five let out a low groan. “Please. Everyone stop talking.” 

“Now you’ve given me a headache as well,” Klaus said, sitting down on the grass. 

“I fucking hate time travel stories,” Diego muttered. Ben glanced at him. “Hey, I’m glad you’re alive. Alive only for now? That’s got to be depressing.” 

“You’re still a real piece of work,” Ben said, and sat down next to Klaus. “The way I see it, Five going back in time into the future—”

“Ugh,” Allison said, rubbing a hand over her face. “I’m starting to see Diego’s point.”

“—changed time,” Ben said, ignoring the interruption. “But this Commission didn’t actually try to correct all the things that were changed. All they cared about was the Apocalypse. That means that the Commission only cares about specific instances in time, and lets minor infractions pass.” 

Everyone looked at Five, who let out a slow breath. “I’ve always liked Ben best,” Five said, without removing his arm from his face. “He’s the only one of you lot with more than half a brain.” 

Allison rolled her eyes. “What are you trying to tell us, Ben?”

“Five mentioned he used math to find a way to get back to the past. I’m thinking time is sort of like a really big, complex, theorem. One that has to be constantly proved to stay stable. There have to be multiple ways of proving the theorem and adding to the equation in a way that keeps the theorem stable. And if we can find a different, better proof that doesn’t involve the Apocalypse…” Ben trailed off, no doubt finally noticing the glazed expressions. 

“Smaller words for the rest of the class,” Five said, smirking. “You’re on the right track, though.” 

“I’m thinking big gestures are easy to correct,” Ben said slowly, “because the only way the Commission seems to be able to correct anything is by sending temporal assassins like Hazel and Cha Cha and having them destroy something. If the Big Event can be fixed by brute force, they can fix it. But what if. What if we make the Apocalypse impossible through a series of smaller events?”

“… Meaning?” Diego said, into the silence. 

“He means that we should stay in this timeline as kids and go through childhood again. Try to grow up normal _and_ make sure Vanya grows up normal,” Five said, with a wave of his free hand. “Already impossible. We’re pre-damaged goods, all of us. The only way things could work out is if we had Allison Rumour all of us into forgetting, but even then, our childhood will continue to be completely fucked up. We’ll still grow up into the fucked up little monsters that we all are.” 

“There’s no ‘normal’ for people like us,” Klaus pointed out. “Hello? I can see the dead, Ben can summon giant… tentacles… in a murder way, not even a sexy way—” 

“I didn’t say normal,” Ben said patiently, even as Diego made a choking noise. “I mean we try to get Vanya to a point where she _doesn’t_ want to murder all of you. Jesus. The moon thing was an accident. The reason she got pissed enough to amass that power was because she really, really wanted to kill all of you. Other than Allison.” 

“Don’t think I’ve forgotten that you lot used me as a distraction,” Allison growled. She petted Vanya’s hair. “So? What do we do? Run away from home? Home isn’t exactly a positive environment.” 

“I think we should wait and see how much Vanya remembers before we decide what to do next,” Five said, even as Vanya opened her eyes, looked at all of them, and screamed.

#

They went for donuts after Vanya stopped crying. “Really sorry,” she kept mumbling, curled against the side of the wall of the dinky diner and Allison’s body. Allison glared pointedly at Luther.

“What?” Luther asked defensively. 

“I swear to God, if I have to Rumour all of you into apologising, I fucking will,” Allison growled. 

“Apologise? We weren’t the ones trying to destroy the world,” Diego said. 

“That bit was obviously an accident on her part.” Ben smacked Klaus’ shoulder, making him flinch and drop his donut onto a plate. 

“Vanya. I’m sorry? For. Uh, I wasn’t even gonna kill you or whatever, I just wanted to take the violin away, also, I’m sorry I didn’t know about the room earlier, and I’m really sorry that I didn’t try harder to get you out of it when Luther locked you in there,” Klaus said. He took in a deep breath. “Uh, I mean. If I was a few more days sober I would’ve? I think. Because. I’ve been locked in the dark before and? It’s not great. I mean, it’s terrible. And. Sorry.” He nibbled his donut. “Er, and the concert was great? Other than the world-destroying thing. You’re really good. With the violin. I never told you.” 

“Okay,” Vanya said softly. Her eyes were reddened as she sniffled. Diego grimaced and pushed over some napkins. Even though he’d never liked Vanya that much, he’d always hated seeing her or Allison cry. 

“I wouldn’t have killed you either,” Diego said gruffly. “I just wanted to knock you out. I mean, I didn’t even kill Cha Cha.” 

“Really?” Klaus blinked. “Wooow. Emotional progress from Diego. The world really did end.” 

“Shut up, Klaus. I’m. Trying to maybe.” Diego muttered under his breath. “Anyway. Sorry. And. You were really good? With the violin. I’m sorry we messed up your concert. Even if you weren’t trying to destr—” Diego winced as Ben elbowed him in the ribs. “—uh, I would’ve liked, I mean, I would’ve gone. To your concert. A normal concert.”

“Okay,” Vanya whispered. She pulled the napkins slowly over. 

Ben and Klaus looked pointedly at Five, who let out a loud sigh. “I just wanted to stop you, I wasn’t going to kill you, Christ. I spent four decades trying to get home to save all of you? I would’ve been willing to cut a deal with the Commission to save all of you. Including you. Come to think of it, I should’ve been more suspicious when they said ‘no’ the first time.” 

“You tried to cut a deal?” Luther said, incredulous. 

Five waved a hand impatiently. “I just wanted to keep my options open. What I’m trying to say is. You’re still my sister. Even if you tried to destroy the world. Also, you called me an obnoxious know-it-all in your book.” 

“Sorry,” Vanya murmured. 

“Don’t be sorry, it’s true,” Allison said, patting her shoulders. “Vanya, I’m sorry too. For trying to use my powers on you. For having done it before.”

“Before, it wasn’t your fault,” Vanya said, staring down at her uneaten donut. “Everything that happened. Wasn’t your fault. Was my fault.” 

Diego kicked Luther under the table. Luther coughed. In his non-transformed body, he looked withered somehow. Funny how hindsight worked. Diego had grown up envying Luther, envying his height, his blonde hair, his confident voice, father’s favouritism, until what faint breed of wary affection they’d had between them had soured into bitterness. “Vanya,” Luther muttered. “I shouldn’t have put you in that room. I spent four years on the—”

“Nope,” Allison said sharply. “You don’t get to blame this on Dad, the moon, or anything else but yourself.” 

“I was going to _say_ ,” Luther said, determined, “that I’d only just been back for a few days. I’m not making an excuse. I’m just saying, it’s been a lot to take in. I wasn’t going to… I wasn’t going to leave you in there, it’s just. You killed two people and, Pogo said. Also, you killed Pogo. And Mother.” 

Vanya went pale, even as Five said, “She hasn’t done it yet.”

“That sounded a hell of a lot like excuses to me.” Allison glared at Luther. 

“It’s okay,” Vanya said, in a small voice. “Luther was right. Dad was right. I’m dangerous.” 

“We’re all dangerous,” Allison said, clasping Vanya’s hand tightly. “We’ve just got to learn self-control. Hell, I know that. It took me decades to learn and I’m still learning so. You can learn too. I still make mistakes. Lots of them.” 

Vanya’s lower lip trembled. “Anyone else think it isn’t fair that the two girls got the awesome reality-bending powers and the rest of us just got pretty basic abilities?” Klaus said, obliviously poking at his donut. “I mean, look at us boys. We suck.”

“Excuse you,” Five said, bristling. He opened his mouth to say more, only for Vanya to let out a giggle. She blinked, looking surprised at herself. “Anyway,” Five said, in a marginally more conciliatory tone, “we should try and lie low for now. We aren’t near any main Time event right now, so we shouldn’t be able to attract Commission attention. Gives us some breathing space.” 

“We should break into Dad’s office,” Diego said. He sniffed as Luther frowned at him. “Come on. Dear old Dad clearly knew something was up. Five noticed this too.” 

“Could’ve been a coincidence,” Luther said. 

“Seriously? You’re still going to defend him?” Diego shot back. 

“I mean, that not everything has to do with Dad. Wasn’t that what you were trying to tell me?” 

“And you were listening? Hallelujah.” 

“Stop it. Both of you.” Allison kicked Diego in the shins. “Okay. So. We’re going back. To the house?” 

Five nodded. “We need to lay low for now. That means not making any drastic changes to the timeline. Within reason.” He glanced at Ben. “I think you’re probably right. About the small incremental changes. If we can do that, fix Vanya—”

“You can’t ‘fix’ people, Christ,” Klaus said, finishing his donut and pulling Allison’s uneaten one over. Vanya flinched. “People aren’t toasters. The way I see it, the reason we’re all in this mess is because dear old Dad tried to ‘fix’ all of us.” 

“Fine. I see your point.” Five scowled. 

“We just all need to try and grow up. How hard can it be?” Ben’s mouth curled into a wry, ironic smile. 

Diego rubbed the heels of his hands over his eyes. “This is so not going to work.”

#

“Go away,” Diego hissed. He was crouched in the shrubs under Sir Reginald’s window. Night had always cast an oppressive shroud over the inner garden of the compound, mired in damp and loam and misery.

“Why?” Klaus whispered back. He and Ben were peeking at him from the shrubs closest to the kitchen door. “What happened to lying low?”

“That’s Five’s idea. I don’t want to be stuck at this age for any longer than I have to be,” Diego said sourly. He gestured at himself. “Look at us. We’re ridiculous. I hated these pyjamas.” 

“Okay, you have a point there. Speaking of Five, why don’t you just ask him for help?” Klaus said. 

“I did. He was busy scribbling over his bedroom walls. Told me to fuck off.” Not that Diego had been expecting Five to be of any real help. 

“Right. Uh. So how are you getting up there?” Klaus asked.

“Climb,” Diego grit out. 

“You break into a lot of places?” Ben looked skeptical. 

At Diego’s pointed silence, Klaus said, “Because I have, and I’m telling you, you can’t scale that wall. Call it a professional opinion.”

“From a junkie,” Diego shot back. He took a deep breath. Somehow, he’d forgotten exactly how annoying his brothers could be when they’d all been kids. Even Ben and Klaus, whom Diego had until adulthood regarded as the least annoying of his family.

“Hey, I’ve been clean for days. Ask Ben. Thanks to Ben, actually. He punched me in the mouth the last time I tried to get high and I think he’s waiting to repeat the experience.” Behind Klaus’ shoulder, Ben nodded seriously. 

“Just let him climb,” Ben said, glancing up at the window high above. “This is Diego. He won’t listen until he breaks an arm.” 

“Or his neck,” Klaus said, depressed. “At which point, would you math him back to life by going back in time with Five into our already back in time to—”

“Fuck. Off,” Diego told them. He jammed a knife into the seam between two bricks, then another, and hauled himself up. 

Diego didn’t get nearly far enough when his arms started to tremble. He’d forgotten. Until he’d struck out seriously on his own, Diego hadn’t really bothered training his still gangly body. He’d waited until he’d finished his growth spurt before he’d started trying to pack on muscle. Biting off curses, Diego looked down. He was a few metres off the ground, which was gonna hurt. Klaus and Ben were peering up at him from the shrub below. 

“He got as far as the second storey,” Ben said, holding out a hand to Klaus. “You owe me ten dollars.”

“Joke’s on you, I don’t have ten dollars.” Klaus held out his hands briefly then retracted them. “I was gonna ask Diego to jump so we can catch him, but I can already tell that’s going to go terribly wrong for all of us. Terribly.” 

“Was there something wrong with picking the study’s door lock?” Ben asked, ignoring Klaus. 

“Tried that,” Diego and Klaus said at the same time. Diego glowered at Klaus. “There isn’t just a door lock,” Diego said. “There’s an additional barrier of some kind that I can’t figure out. After he goes to sleep, nobody gets through that door.” Maybe that was why Five was so unhelpful. Diego wouldn’t have put it beyond Sir Reginald to have found a way to Five-proof his study. 

“And the window is fine?” Ben asked. 

“I was just going to check.” Diego hissed as his hands started to slip. “Fuck. You guys should get out of the wa—” He somehow managed to stifle a yell somehow as something caught hold of his waist just as he lost his grip, holding him in the air. 

“Grab your knives,” Ben whispered, sounding strained. “And. Don’t. Scream.” 

The grayish tentacle… thing… holding Diego up lifted him higher in the air when Diego retrieved his knives. It felt icy through his shirt, and had an uncomfortable erratic pulse that beat against his skin as it hauled Diego up to the window ledge. Scrambling up to wedge himself against the ledge and the window, Diego breathed out as the tentacle retracted. When he looked down, Ben appeared normal. 

“Never going to get used to that,” Klaus said. 

“I’m still not used to it, and I’m me,” Ben told him. “Also, if you say anything, anything at all about tentacle porn, I will end you.”

“I liked you more when you were a ghost,” Klaus said sadly. 

Ben glanced up. “Diego? Everything okay?” 

“Quiet,” Diego hissed down at them. He inspected the window. Simple latch, no visible trip wires. Sloppy, for Dad. Diego flipped up the latch by inserting his knife through the window slit and let himself in. 

So far, so good. The office looked empty. No apparent alarm systems. Diego crept on silent feet to the large desk, inspecting the lock on the first drawer. As he drew out his lockpicks, Klaus said, “There’s nothing in there but a bottle of whiskey.” 

Diego nearly bit down on his tongue. Klaus was sauntering through to the desk, while behind him, Ben was pulling himself through the window. There was a distortion in the air above his belly as whatever he’d summoned out of himself returned to the ether, leaving a faint scent of ozone and rot. “ _Guys_ ,” Diego growled. 

“We’ve been through this place before, you haven’t, so we thought we’d save you some time,” Klaus said brightly. 

“What? When?” Diego asked. 

“When he died. Klaus was looking for stuff to sell for money. There was a gold and black enamel box that Pogo said was priceless,” Ben said, circling over to point at one of the desk drawers. “Think it was in here. Contained some papers and a journal of some kind. Should be a start.”

“What was in the journal?” Diego obligingly started to pick the lock. 

“No idea. Klaus tossed it into the dumpster and we couldn’t find it afterward when we looked for it. He pawned off the box.” 

“Only you,” Diego told Klaus, as he pulled the drawer open. There was an ornate gold and black box under a stack of yellowing papers. He set it on the desk and unlatched it. Inside was a brown leather journal and some papers, along with a monocle. As Diego picked the journal up, Klaus grabbed his elbow. Beyond the locked door, there was the sound of heavy approaching footsteps. 

Ben grabbed the box and shoved it back under the papers in the drawer, pushing the drawer shut. Klaus skidded over to the window, looking down. “Ben,” Klaus whispered, “could you?” 

“I don’t know how much fine control I’ve got left,” Ben said, nervous. He did look a little pale. “I thought we could leave through the study door. You know I can’t summon Them too many times in a day without a break in between. The last time I pushed myself too hard…” 

The footsteps were nearly at the door. No more time. “I’m gonna trust you to catch us,” Diego said, trying to sound confident. He wedged the journal up his shirt, grabbed Klaus by his collar and shoved them both through the window, out into empty space, clapping a hand tightly over Klaus’ mouth to stifle his scream. 

The ground came up to meet them with eye-watering speed. He’d miscalculated. They were all going to break their necks. They—

Tentacles wound around them, arresting their fall for a bone-jarring moment before letting them drop the last foot onto the grass. Diego rolled free and onto his feet, just in time to see tentacles spooling back into the gray shadows at Ben’s belly, letting him fall onto his knees as they loosed their grip from the windowsills and the branches of a nearby tree. Diego hauled Klaus up, grabbing Ben and pulling them into the deepest shadow behind the tree. Sir Reginald glanced out of the window above, frowned to himself, and closed it. 

“Good work, team,” Diego said. He turned to his brothers and flinched. Ben’s eyes were squeezed shut, his teeth clenched together, but behind his eyelids flickered a dim purplish light. The air began to stink of ozone and rot. “Shit.” 

“Hey. Hey!” Klaus pressed his hands tightly to Ben’s cheeks, then patted them lightly. “Ben. _Ben_. Get a hold of yourself, Ben. Ben!” 

Ben uttered a glottal word that his throat shouldn’t have been capable of speaking. It made the hair on Diego’s skin prickle, a cold shiver spinning down his spine. “Ben. C’mon. You can do this. You haunted Klaus’ junkie ass for years. Given the shit you must’ve seen and been through, this is nothing.”

“ _The things I’ve seen_ ,” Ben said, in a serrated voice that echoed from somewhere in his gut. He drew in a shuddering breath, and let it out in a rush of mildew and stale air. Ben’s jaw hung open, yawning painfully wider. Diego couldn’t see his tongue or anything past his pale teeth. The shadows within were deepening into indigo, even as light cracked past the edges of his eyes, forking over his cheeks.

Diego drew back a fist, ready to clock Ben across his temple, but Klaus grabbed his wrist and hung on. “No! That’s what Luther did. Before. Knock him out when he’s like this and They take over!” 

“Okay. Okay.” Diego stared at Ben as the light grew ever brighter, spreading towards his throat. “Then what do we do?” 

“I don’t know?” Klaus said, panicky. “We’ve got to distract him? I think? He told me before how he thought he could be stopped at this stage but I was high, really high, so I don’t know, dunk him in cold water, kiss him, sl—” 

“Fuck. This.” Diego hauled Ben towards him, trying not to look too hard at the unearthly light. He shoved Ben’s jaw shut and kissed him hard on the mouth. Ben jerked against him, making a convulsive sound. Something unsettling rippled against Diego’s chest between them, twisting over their ribs before it went still. Diego pulled back and looked at a shocked but no longer glowing Ben with relief. 

“Shit," Klaus said, wide-eyed. "I was joking about kissing, man.”


	2. Chapter 2

Breakfast was the one meal of the day where they were left mostly to their own devices. For the longest time, it had just been the six of them, minus Vanya. Mom would fix everyone eggs and bacon and toast and orange juice and bustle off. Most of them didn’t stay long at the table, especially as the years wound on and the fractures between them grew greater. 

Ben hadn’t noticed the problems between them when he’d been alive. He’d burned the few short years he’d lived with his nose in various books, and even when he was dead he couldn’t quite regret how he’d spent his time, especially when he watched what his siblings failed to become. As Ben cut into a piece of bacon, Luther cleared his throat in the awkward silence. “Well uh, I guess it wasn’t all a dream if Ben’s actually eating at the table without reading.” 

“Had a long night,” Ben said. He was ravenously hungry, a common side-effect that lingered for hours after summoning Them. He barely noticed the pangs in his gut this time even as he was polishing off his breakfast. It took an effort not to stare across the table at Diego, whose attention appeared fully focused on his eggs. 

Diego, who had kissed him. Ben wasn’t really sure what he felt about that. In some ways, he missed being dead. Death had unmoored Ben from complex emotions. Having it dumped back on his shoulders all at once was both exhilarating and unwelcome. 

“Trouble sleeping?” Allison asked, looking sympathetic. 

Diego glanced up and gave Ben a minute shake of his head. Ben looked away. He hoped his ears weren’t burning. Ben had a fuzzy memory of the night past the kiss. Klaus and Diego had poured him into his bed to sleep things off. As Ben had dropped off into an exhausted slumber he’d still felt like his mouth was tingling. He’d been braced for an awkward morning, but Diego appeared to have decided that nothing weird had happened. Which was somehow worse. 

“Yeah. I’ve been trying to adjust. To being alive again.” Ben glanced at Vanya, but Vanya was hunched in on herself at the end of the table, poking at the pieces of bacon on her plate. She’d cut them all into tiny pieces. “Vanya? You okay?” 

Vanya’s fork clattered loudly on her plate as she dropped it. She flushed as she picked it up. “Yes. Yes. I’m fine.” 

“Sooo,” Allison said, taking a sip of her orange juice, “if we’re going to be stuck in this timeline for now, is there anything in particular that we should be doing? Training Vanya, maybe?” 

If Ben hadn’t been watching Vanya, he would have missed the slight stiffening to her shoulders. “What does Vanya want to do?” Ben asked, as gently as he could. 

“Anything,” Vanya mumbled. 

“Maybe—” Luther began.

“Maybe you should just take it easy for now,” Diego said. He ignored Luther’s frown. “We’ve all had a big, messy, fucking depressing week. Or year,” Diego added, with a brief look at Klaus, who tensed. “We could do with a breather.” 

Luther stared at Diego with suspicion, but when Diego merely kept eating his eggs, Luther let out a slow breath. “True. We’ve been through a lot recently. I’d like to hope it brought us a little closer as a family—”

There was a loud snort from Five and an incredulous glance from Allison, even as Diego’s eyebrows jumped. “Nothing like some light fratricide to bring the family closer, eh?” Klaus said. Vanya flushed. 

“It brought us geographically closer together,” Ben said, before he could help himself. Diego let out a loud laugh, which made Ben grin faintly as Allison tried to stifle a giggle. 

“ _In any case_ ,” Luther said, with a pointed stare at Ben, “we’re going to have to go through the motions unless you want Dad to suspect anything.” 

“We’re not going to keep isolating Vanya,” Allison said, with a warning glare around the table. “And surely we’re not going to stay like this forever. Right?” She looked over at Five when Five didn’t answer. “We’re going back to where… _when_ we’re meant to be, right? When we’ve done what we have to do here?” 

“You think it’s that simple?” Five said, smiling sharply. “That what, we accumulate enough happy points or whatever here and I can snap my fingers and push us forward to where we were? Please. Just by being here, we’ve already started to change the timeline.”

“So if we skip forward from now,” Klaus said, rubbing at his temple, “do we leave the… previous versions of us here? The ones who were little shits to Vanya and let Ben die? Or do we leave sort of. Copies of our current selves? Or do we disappear?” 

“Allison was right in one regard,” Five said, ignoring the question. “This house isn’t a positive influence on any of us. I considered killing Dad—”

“What,” Luther said, narrowing his eyes. 

“—but that likely wouldn’t have been a positive influence overall either.” Five finished his breakfast and set his fork and knife on the plate in the proper position. “Also, Sir Reginald Hargreeves is what you’d call a Significant Factor. Eliminating him too early in the timeline would draw attention.” 

“I can’t believe you even considered that,” Luther told him. 

“Given you’re a big reason why our dear sister here managed to blow up the moon, I’m not interested in what you believe,” Five shot back, with a gesture at Vanya. She shrank further back in her seat. “I’ve got some ideas of what should be done, but I’m running through the math.” 

“I could help,” Ben said. 

“I’m several decades ahead of your current understanding of math, so I really doubt it,” Five said. He pushed up from the table. “Just. Try not to ruin things before I come up with a solution.” He stepped into the air and vanished into a distortion. 

“Still such a dick,” Diego said. He got up as well, looking at Ben and Klaus. “We’ve got some time before training. C’mon.” 

“Where are you lot going?” Luther asked. 

“Exercising. We’re going to jog around town, see if there’s anyone suspicious. Just in case Five isn’t right about us being able to lie low.” 

Luther started to nod. “Makes sense. Allison and I will—”

“Learn to play the violin,” Allison said. At Vanya’s blink, Allison said, “Vanya’s a music teacher.” 

“I really don’t think that’s necessary,” Luther said, startled. 

“Oh, I do,” Allison said, narrowing her eyes. Ben slunk off out of the kitchen on Diego’s heels as Luther opened his mouth to argue. They hurried through the living room towards the door, keeping an eye out for Sir Reginald. Ben breathed out more easily once they were jogging down the sidewalk, dodging the few people still hurrying out on their business past the morning rush. 

“I’ve got the book with me,” Diego said as they jogged. “It’s not safe to read it in the house and we’re going to have to put it back soon or Dad will notice it’s missing. We’re going to have to make a copy of it.”

“The library has a Xerox machine,” Ben said, “but if I recall, it’s going to cost something like twenty-five cents a page and we don’t have that kind of money.” 

“We do, because this morning I stole some cash out of Dad’s wallet. What?” Klaus said, when they both stared at him. “He has loads more where that came from.” 

“You’re not planning on getting high, are you?” Ben asked, suspicious. 

“No? No. Why do you ask? I’m in my pre-junkie body right now. I’m so sober right now that if I get any soberer, I’ll probably start talking like Five.” Klaus flinched as Ben grabbed his elbow. 

“Hand the money over. All of it,” Ben said. 

“Aw, come on. You guys are here, I’m hardly going to just sneak off on my own like this and—” Klaus yelped as Diego circled in front of him and patted him down. The money had been split into wads in Klaus’ shorts pockets and inside his left sock. 

“There’s probably an extra bit down the front of his underwear.” Ben had, after all, spent far too many years having to watch over a brother who possessed no sense of shame. Klaus grinned as Diego’s face screwed up in disgust. “Just give that to me,” Ben said. The things he had to do for family. 

Klaus sulked the rest of the way to the library, staying quiet all the way until Diego locked them in the room with the machine. “I’m surprised they let us in here unsupervised,” Klaus said, looking around. 

“The librarian knows me,” Ben said, checking the paper slot. “There’d usually be a supervisor in here, but we paid enough up front and they know that if we break this they can get Dad to settle up.” At Diego’s blink, Ben added dryly, “You didn’t think that mask was worth a damn, do you? What other family in these parts has seven kids like us? The domino mask’s for the papers.”

“How does this work?” Klaus asked, inspecting the buttons and knob. 

“It’s pretty easy. I’ll show you guys once, then we should probably take turns.” Ben took the journal from Diego and put it face down on the glass. He showed them how to print a page, after which Klaus made a face.

“This is going to take forever,” Klaus complained. 

“Faster than us copying it by hand.” Diego nudged Ben out of the way. “I’ll start. You both read. Klaus can take over when I get tired. We should make two copies. Give Five a set.”

“Why is he still called Five again?” Klaus said as he and Ben pulled up a chair. 

“Said something about refusing to let a robot name him, I think it was.” Somewhere along the line, everyone had just gotten used to calling Five ‘Five’. “Think he was going to come up with his own name but never got around to deciding on one he liked. I kind of see his point sometimes,” Ben said, sitting down and glancing through the first page. 

“Which point?” The machine whirred as Diego scanned a page. 

“Well,” Ben said distractedly as he read, “funny how the rest of you got appropriate names but me.” He read to the end of the page and glanced up, puzzled, when there was only silence. “Can I have page two, please?” 

Klaus was blinking owlishly. Diego looked stricken beside the machine. “You could have said something to Mother,” Diego said, “if you didn’t like your name.” 

“I think it’s fine,” Ben said, because he’d had time enough to get used to it. Used to Diego being called Diego, Vanya being called Vanya, Klaus being Klaus. Their heritage had been stolen from all seven of them, but coincidentally or not, Mother had tried to return a little of it with their names, hinting at the places they had come from, the people they could have been. Whatever programming had prompted this of her had failed when she had come to Ben. 

“Would you have preferred a Chinese name?” Klaus asked. 

“Korean,” Diego said. At Ben’s sharp glance, Diego actually flushed a little. “I might have. Read bits of the book last night. There are sections on all of us. Especially on Vanya.”

“Didn’t it maybe occur to you that information like that was private?” Klaus snapped. Ben glanced at Klaus with surprise. Klaus hardly ever got angry—he’d once told Ben that it was just too much effort. 

“It’s fine,” Ben said, as Diego frowned at Klaus. “We’re family.” Diego hesitated, then lowered his head and turned a page. They settled into a quiet rhythm. Ben read faster than Klaus, so he’d read first then hand the page he’d read over. The first part of the journal was simple enough, an account of The Correction, as Sir Reginald liked to call the 43 births in his journal.

“Correction of what?” Diego asked, an hour in when Klaus took over at the copier. Absorbed in reading the chapter Sir Reginald had devoted to his study of Them, Ben didn’t answer. He yelped as Diego nudged him with an elbow. “Hey. Earth to Ben.” 

“That? Oh,” Ben said, still distracted. “Isn’t it obvious?”

Diego exchanged glances with Klaus. “Not to us,” Diego said. 

“Dad thought that the 43 births was the timeline trying to reassert itself,” Ben said. At their blank stares, he explained, “The reason we were born? It’s because something big happened. Or didn’t happen. Something changed the timeline in a way that the Commission couldn’t fix.”

#

“I give up,” Luther said, after the fifth time Pogo stared sadly down at them from the upper floor. He tried to offer the violin back to Vanya.

Allison grinned as she took her hands off her ears. “That last go wasn’t so bad. Less ‘cat being murdered’, more ‘cat being angry’.” Vanya startled to giggle, then pressed her hands to her mouth, looking at Luther guiltily. 

“I heard a rumour… that my fingers are too big and clumsy,” Luther said, with a wry smile. 

“Very funny,” Allison told him.

“I have a student who was born without arms. Plays the violin with her feet. She’s great. A prodigy,” Vanya said, with a faint smile. She’d grown less tense and pale as the lessons had progressed. By the time they’d moved from Allison to Luther, Vanya had even managed the confidence to make eye contact again. 

“That’s amazing,” Luther said. He looked genuinely curious. As he asked Vanya questions about her students, Allison snuck another quick look around the hall. Having lessons here was pretty safe, given the acoustics of the house. Sir Reginald would be in his study, and if he were to walk toward them they’d be able to pick up the echo of his footsteps. Or if they didn’t, they’d at least see him coming. 

Vanya excused herself to go to the bathroom. Once she was out of sight, Luther quickly placed the violin and bow back in its case, standing up and stretching. “I think my eyes hurt,” he said, wincing. “My ears, too. I don’t remember Vanya going through the scratchy violin stage.” 

“I didn’t remember that much of her growing up,” Allison said, lowering her voice. “Not until she left and wrote that book.” It was a big house, and she’d always had Luther. Vanya had no one.

Luther looked at Allison for a long moment. He sat down on the bench beside her, their hands nearly touching. “How’re you holding up?” Luther asked quietly. 

“Fine, why?”

“You don’t look fine.” 

Damn Luther. She could never hide much from him. Or him from her. Allison looked away, her hands clenching into fists. “I envy all of you.”

“How so?”

“It doesn’t sound like any of you left anyone behind.” 

Luther straightened up. “Claire,” he said softly. 

Allison gave him a tight nod. _Claire_. “Being apart… being so far apart… it’s like a part of me is missing. Torn away. And if I think about it? Think about how, if we change things, I might never, ever get to meet her? I can’t even imagine that, Luther. I can’t.” 

“You’ll meet her again,” Luther said confidently. “Five will think of something.” 

“I won’t. Not unless I go back to the way I was. And I’m done with all that.” Allison wasn’t sure that she could bear going through life again, intentionally making the same mistakes. Even for a chance at seeing Claire again. _I heard a rumour that you love me._ The memory curled insidiously in her chest, pressing down in sour notes. She hadn’t even regretted it at the time, when she’d watched mild curiosity turn into adoration on Patrick’s face. 

He had known at the end, though. Known and hated Allison for what she had done. 

“Isn’t time a math equation, or whatever Ben and Five said it was?” Luther gently pressed his big palm over her knuckles. “I like to think that Claire is important enough, amazing enough, that you’ll get around to meeting her again someday. Even if you don’t make the same choices.” 

_Things are never that neat_ , Allison wanted to say. She smiled wanly anyway, even as she pulled her hand away. “Thanks, Luther.” 

“We’ll all get through this. Vanya too. Even if I have to learn how to play that thing,” Luther said. His quick, playful grin was so familiar that Allison laughed. When Vanya returned, Luther had the violin in his hands as he carefully paged through the songbook. 

“I think I’m starting to get used to it,” Luther told her, raising the violin to his shoulder. 

“Shoulders loose,” Vanya said, touching his elbow lightly. “You’re not meant to raise your shoulder to meet the violin.” 

Allison winced at the screech that Luther drew from the poor violin. She started to laugh at his guilty expression, only to freeze at the sound of fast-approaching footsteps. Vanya took her violin back from Luther even as Luther and Allison split up, heading out of the hall. Instead of regrouping in the garden as they’d agreed, Allison lingered in the shadow of the doorway to the drawing room, worried. 

It had been years since she had last seen Sir Reginald. He hadn’t bothered to go to any of her premieres, even when she’d sent tickets to the house. The last conversation they’d had involved anger on her side and disappointment on his. _Using your abilities for something as banal as personal gain will destroy you_ , Sir Reginald had told her, _and I hope you grow self-aware enough to regret it before it’s too late._ He had been right, of course. Sir Reginald was only so infuriating when he was right. 

“What on earth was that racket?” Sir Reginald said as he strode into the room. He looked ageless, his whiskered face fierce with the same unfathomable obsession that Allison had never quite understood. For a long time she had mistaken it for love, and that had been enough for her younger self. 

“Sorry, sir,” Vanya said. She kept her eyes downcast, her voice a monotone. Allison and Luther had tried to coach her on this. She’d have to make it look like she was still taking her pills. 

Sir Reginald studied her in thoughtful silence. “Play me something,” he said. 

“What would you like me to play, sir?”

“It doesn’t matter. Play the Star-Spangled Banner for all I care. Something. Start.” 

Vanya held up the violin. Filtered through the near-empty house, the Star-Spangled Banner sounded unearthly from a single violin, somehow immeasurably sad. A mourning song, for the lives that they had lived and would never live again. Allison pressed her hands over her mouth as her eyes stung. As the song drew to a gentle close, Sir Reginald clapped his hands together sharply. 

Allison flinched violently as Vanya drew a shrill squeal from the violin. “Number Seven,” Sir Reginald said.

“Yes sir,” Vanya said. 

“Have you been taking your pills?” 

Allison held her breath. “Yes sir,” Vanya said. 

“Don’t lie to me, girl.” Sir Reginald clapped his hands together again sharply. “Have you.” Another clap. “Been. Taking. Your _pills_.” Each clap struck in the ringing silence between Sir Reginald’s words like a blow. 

Dust shivered down from the ceiling. Allison chanced a peek around the door. Vanya’s hands were clenched tight on the violin and the bow, her face pale. Gritting her teeth, Allison took in a slow breath. She had never, ever tried to Rumour Sir Reginald before. She didn’t remember why, though the knowledge itched unsaid in her mind. Taking in a breath, Allison was about to step out of the room when Luther walked in. He made a show of surprise and guilt that wasn’t at all convincing—Luther had never been a great actor by any measure. 

“Oh. Dad,” Luther said. 

Sir Reginald glanced at Luther, hard-eyed. “What is it, Number One?” 

“I’m uh, sorry about the noise? It was me. I kinda. Stole Vanya’s violin. Just wanted to try it out. Sorry if I made you mad,” Luther told Vanya. “I know it was really childish of me.”

“It’s okay,” Vanya said in a small voice, blinking. “The violin belongs to Father.” 

Allison waited, ready to spring out and save both of her siblings from Sir Reginald’s wrath. Strangely enough, Sir Reginald merely looked at the violin. The anger in his face faded into an unsettling stillness, and he turned on his heel, stalking away. “Stop wasting time, Number One. You have training to do,” he said.

“He’s gone,” Luther said, once Allison couldn’t hear footsteps any longer. 

Allison peeked out. “That was close,” she said. 

Vanya’s eyes were squeezed tightly shut. “I nearly. I nearly lost control again. I was trying. The sound. Leonard did it that way too. With the sound.” 

“Shh, shh.” Allison darted over, hugging Vanya and petting her hair. “You did great. And nobody’s expecting you to learn self-control all at once.” 

“I never did,” Vanya said shakily. “Father, he tried to teach me. When I was younger. I’ve been remembering bits of it. When he tried. It was horrible. I was horrible.”

“You could never be horrible.” Allison squeezed Vanya’s shoulders, looking into her eyes. “You would’ve been so young then. We all were.”

“I think I’m the reason why we had a robot for a mother,” Vanya whispered. Her hands started to tremble, then she squeaked as they were both abruptly pulled up into the air in a bear hug. Luther let them dangle for a few heartbeats, then he dropped them gently back on the ground. 

“Think we all needed that,” Luther said, as Vanya stared up at him. “Hey, uh. I’ll like to try again with the violin. Maybe tomorrow?” 

Vanya managed a slow smile after a few false starts. “You guys better go. For training.” 

“Actually, I think you should come along for that,” Allison said, holding on to her wrist. At the nervous look that Vanya shot her, Allison added gently, “When you’re ready.” 

Vanya looked between them indecisively, just as the front door opened. She jumped. Diego frowned at them as he walked in, trailing Klaus and Ben. “Anything?” Luther said, recovering from his surprise first. 

“Nah.” Diego started to head for the stairs, only for Ben to grab his elbow. They exchanged a glance, but Diego was the first to look away. 

“We need to hold a family meeting,” Ben said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ~~Umbrella Academy takes place in 1977 so photocopy machines already existed, as per this 1960s Xerox commercial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlprbzxwbOc~~ The comics take place in 1977, but it looks like the show starts in 1989 / present day.


	3. Chapter 3

This is Klaus’ secret: the drugs are an excuse. Didn’t Ben’s near-constant presence make it clear that Klaus’ powers worked whether he was clean or breathlessly high? Ben, who’d somehow grown up right beside him despite being dead past the age of fifteen. Ben, who nobody else believed was there. 

That was the most disorienting thing for Klaus, post-Ben’s-death. When a goddamned statue had been put up in the garden Ben’s ghost had struck a dramatic pose beside it, making Klaus laugh long and loud despite the angry looks Luther and Allison had shot him. No one had ever believed him whenever he’d said Ben was there. Luther had once even said he was insensitive when he’d asked Ben for a vote during a family meeting months afterward. Even though everyone knew what Klaus could do. Even though he’d still been sober at the time. 

It took Klaus a few years to understand why. He really did have the most useless power of them all. Nobody wanted to know that the dead lingered after death as rootless fractals of themselves. Klaus’ ability proved that existence was meaningless, that God did not exist, that life was just a short phase in a long and ugly cosmic joke. Klaus didn’t really take drugs to dampen his pain or forget the ghosts, nothing so prosaic. He took drugs to forget the living. Ghosts were just noisy sometimes. It was people who could be brilliantly cruel. 

Once he had asked Ben why Ben’s ghost was still there, years after and four days into withdrawal, stinking of his own piss and worse, curled in the basement of a dying house. “Because I love you,” Ben had said, with the thoughtless simplicity of someone who had not ever grown old enough to know how much love could hurt. 

Love had driven Ben to stay by his side, to grow visibly older as Klaus grew older. “This way I’ll remind you that I’m just as old as you are,” Ben had said, when Klaus asked him now and then why he bothered. “Why not.” “I like leather jackets.” “I’m taller this way.” “I never liked being a kid.” And one day, finally the truth: “Because maybe someday you’d listen to me.” That was Ben’s curse. As a naturally quiet and bookish child, he had been easy to ignore. 

No one was listening now. They were holding the family meeting in the kitchen, hours past the Designated Bedtime. Five was reading his copy of the journal, Diego and Luther were arguing over the usual petty shit, Allison was stifling yawns, and Vanya was staring at the ceiling. Ben’s face was a study in frozen exasperation, a look that was both familiar and unfamiliar. Klaus was used to seeing it on an older version of his face.

He clapped Ben on the shoulder. “I’ll handle this,” Klaus said brightly. He climbed onto the kitchen table and pretended to cough into an imaginary microphone. “Testing. One, two. One, two.” 

“Get down from there before you break your neck,” Diego said, without looking over. 

“Yesterdaaay,” Klaus sang, winking at Ben as he threw a dramatic wave towards the ceiling, “aaall my troubles seemed so faaar away… Now it looks as though they’re heeeere to staaay… Take it away, Ben!” 

Ben looked panicky at being put on the spot. “I don’t know the words.”

Klaus gawked at him. “It’s a Beatles song! How can you not know the words?” 

“ _Oh, I believe… in yesterday_ ,” Vanya sang softly. She smiled awkwardly. 

“Yesterday is a relative concept,” Five said, but at least he’d stopped reading. “And you’re most likely right. Something happened that the Commission couldn’t correct. Major changes do happen to the timeline now and then. The Commission’s agents aren’t infallible. Other than me, of course.” 

Behind Five’s back, Diego made a rude gesture. “I’m sure the math is fascinating and everything, but is there a point to this? Please tell me there was something useful in that book.” 

“Did you put it back?” Luther glowered at Diego. 

“I did,” Five said. He shuffled through the papers. “And before you ask, no, I’m not aware of any event that did or did not happen that could’ve precipitated the births.” 

“More importantly,” Ben said, “it’s clear that Dad devoted his life to trying to stop the Apocalypse. Or, more precisely, _an_ Apocalypse.”

“There’s more than one?” Allison said.

“There’s potentially more than one.” Five shuffled a page of dense equations to the top of the stack. “Dad was in charge of preventing the 2019 Apocalypse. Or as he calls it, Incident Alpha-5-2019. He’d narrowed it down to two potential causes.” 

“Me,” Vanya said, in a small voice. 

“And me,” Ben said, “except I was already dead. Just like he intended.” 

Luther flushed. “You’re not saying that Dad… that Dad intended for you to die?”

“I know he told you and Diego to knock me out if I ever looked like I was about to lose control,” Ben told Luther evenly. 

“That generally works,” Diego said, though he looked troubled. 

“My powers work as a gateway. Shut it down and the Things behind the gate are left with nothing to eat but the gatekeeper.”

“Ben. I didn’t… I didn’t know.” Luther was growing pale. 

“Dad did have a point. If I was older and stronger… if I had a reason or lost control? It’s possible that I could’ve caused the apocalypse. An apocalypse,” Ben said.

“Why did he train you and not me?” Vanya asked, her hands clenched on the table. 

“Probably because he is, let me guess, an incredible prick,” Klaus said, slouching back into his chair.

“Because he thought he’d fixed us both.” Ben stared at her until Vanya’s eyes dropped. “Made you think you didn’t have powers. And made sure that either Diego or Luther would get me killed if I lost control.” 

Diego’s lip curled. “‘I never meant to break the children.’ He actually had the balls to write that in his goddamned journal.” 

“He didn’t break us,” Allison said flatly. “We’re still here.” She reached over, clasping Vanya’s hand. “Still here.”

“The point I’m trying to get to is.” Ben looked over at Five. “Nevermind what causes the apocalypse. I think it’s more curious that Dad knew about it, from way before we were even born. Do you think the Commission’s the only organisation of its kind out there?”

#

“Thanks for backing me up,” Ben said, when they were walking back to their rooms.

“I still can’t believe you don’t know the words to ‘Yesterday’,” Klaus said. They’d let the others walk on ahead, dragging their heels like they used to. “Also, don’t mention it. I always liked you the most. Of this entire unhinged brood. Do you think everyone else even realizes how desperately in need of therapy they are?”

“I did spend over a decade trying to push you into getting over yourself.” Ben offered him a quick grin. 

“I think I like you most because you’re the only one of us who isn’t a little shit deep down. Look at the rest of us. Luther has this ‘hurrr, me big man, big dick’ thing going on, Diego’s never gotten out of his pseudo-goth psychotic emo phase—”

“Diego’s not so bad,” Ben said. Klaus stared at him, an incredulous retort at the tip of his tongue. He swallowed it as he noticed the pinkness of Ben’s ears, only faintly visible in the dim lamplight from street level.

“Really,” Klaus said.

“What?”

“ _Diego_.”

Ben stared at Klaus in suspicion. “What are you talking about?” 

“Not here. Let’s head up.” Klaus veered away from the corridor to their rooms, heading for the storage room where their mission gear was stored.

“Up where?” Ben asked, though he obligingly followed Klaus, even as Klaus hauled up the window and climbed out. Pulling himself up on the pipe and ivy, he clambered up to the roof of the house, pulling Ben after him. They teetered over slippery roof tiles until they got to an attic window, one with cloudy glass. Klaus hauled it up and crawled aside. The room behind it had been disused until Klaus had found it. It was empty and thick with dust—as of this point in time, the boy he was/had been/is hadn’t yet found it. 

“Oh. This place,” Ben said. He frowned at Klaus. “Don’t tell me. You want to get high? I _will_ hit you.” 

“Nope. It’s just a good place to talk.” Klaus moved over a couple of crates stacked at the side to serve as chairs, perching on one of them. “You disappeared for a while after your funeral. Think this is the place where you finally answered me when I called.” 

Ben nodded. He sat on the other crate. “I was figuring things out.” 

“About being dead?”

“About whether They were going to find some way to get back into the world without me.” 

“And?”

“I don’t know. I thought they were gone. Couldn’t feel them anywhere. Until you did what you did in the concert hall, I thought I was free of them forever.” 

Klaus grimaced. “Sorry about that?”

“Not at all. You weren’t the one who called them. I did. Just like I was the one who pulled Diego away from the falling ceiling. Your powers… they bridge the Divide somehow. Between death and life. That’s pretty amazing.” 

“Only temporarily,” Klaus said. He blew out a sigh, looking away. “Speaking of the Divide. I tried summoning Dave. Last night.”

“And?” Ben asked softly.

“And nothing. I couldn’t get him.” 

Ben started to frown. “But—”

“I’m clean. I had the right frame of mind. But I couldn’t get him.” Klaus hunched down. “He’s still alive. Coming back here, it’s already changed what we’ve done. If I hadn’t gone back in time, if I’d never met him, he would have survived the war.” 

“Klaus,” Ben said softly. He got off his crate and nudged up beside Klaus, curling an arm over his shoulders. “You could look for him. In the living world. I’ll help.”

“How? And what for? He’d have to be in his fifties. I only knew him for less than a year. The person he was then, the person he is now… never mind. I didn’t even want to bring Dave up. I was trying to say. Things can be different now. Or have been different? I hate time travel.” 

“Okay,” Ben said. He cautiously patted Klaus on the back. 

Klaus rubbed a hand slowly over his eyes. “I’m actually kinda glad. In a messed up way. Look at how fucked up I am. I would have screwed it all up with Dave if it’d gone on any longer.” 

“You’re not that bad.” 

“You’re the only person who’d ever said that to me.” Klaus poked Ben in the shoulder. “You’re also the first person to ever say ‘I love you’ to me. Did you know that?” 

“Allison loves you too. And Vanya. Even Diego, in his own way. And Five.” 

“Just not Luther, huh.”

Ben’s mouth twitched into a wry smile. “Luther only loves two people in this world. Allison and Dad. With the rest of us, he’s just going through the motions. I’m surprised you actually remember me saying that, though. You were really out of it at the time. Hallucinating pink ducks and stuff. You were narrating it all, pretending to be David Attenborough.” 

“Fun times.” Klaus leaned against Ben. Ben’s slight body was warm through the ridiculous pyjamas, and Klaus could feel him breathing, his body shifting gently with each breath. In the stillness of the hour, the long quiet was peppered only indistinctly by the faint creaking of the old house and the occasional rumble of distant traffic. 

“Don’t do that again, all right? Getting yourself addicted to hard drugs,” Ben said. 

“Maaaybe.” Klaus pretended to yawn hugely. Lectures had always bored him. “Leave my coping mechanisms alone.” 

“Things are going to be different.” Had Ben always radiated this quiet certainty? 

“That’s what I said. They already are.” Before Ben could say anything unintentionally pithy about Dave, Klaus added, “You and Diego, huh?”

“What?”

“Like Allison and Luther?” 

“What. No?” Ben frowned at Klaus. “What are you talking about?” 

“Die-go and Be-n, sitt-ing in a tree—”

“ _Jesus_ , no. You’re not actually a kid again, so stop acting like one.” Ben shoved Klaus’ shoulder. “He’s our brother.”

“So? Nothing about our lives or our family situation is remotely normal anyway. Besides, Allison and Luther are our siblings too, and those two have been doing this Fatal Attraction dance around each other for years.” Klaus paused. “Minus the rabbit murder and the other murders. I think. Hard to tell with those two.”

“That is completely the wrong analogy and you know it.” Ben slouched against Klaus so heavily that they both nearly overbalanced off the crate. “Okay. Diego. Is really hot. Though if you tell him that I told you this, nobody will ever find your body.”

“But…?” Klaus grinned slyly. 

“But,” Ben said, poking Klaus in the cheek, “he’s so straight, he thinks walking around in a turtleneck, a leather harness, and bared knives over his ass is socially acceptable. He’s so straight, he’s got mommy issues a mile wide. He's so straight, he lives in a basement in some kinda fight club. And. Those gloves. I could go on.”

Klaus snickered. “Man, you’re still my favourite brother.”

“That’s not difficult. Look at the competition.” 

“I don’t know. You’re right about Diego. He’s hot. Probably would be a good time too, if he wasn’t so—” Klaus wriggled his fingers. “—so stabby. And so, so angry. Just like Luther. It’s got to be a straight guy thing. How do women put up with it? Surely the sex isn’t worth it. You know, I heard that straight people don’t actually know how to fuck. They just bang various bits together and call it a day.”

Ben started to laugh. The soft chuckle welled up deep inside him like a whisper and shook him against Klaus, and Klaus remembered this kindly, one of the few uncommon kindnesses that an uncommonly cruel childhood had disgorged. Klaus had no real anger in him over the hand Fate had meted him over his childhood, not because anger was not in his nature but because he was glad that he had met Ben. And the others, in different degrees. They sat together in companionable silence with their hands laced together, listening to each other breathe.

#

“We’re going to get caught,” Vanya said, as Allison paid for tickets. She was nervous as Allison grabbed her hand, dragging them past the rickety booths and into the vaguely fenced off field of the traveling fair. “Didn’t you and Luther get caught doing this? I remember Dad getting really angry.”

“Luther and I got caught, yes. You’re not Luther. Didn’t you say you’ve never been to a fair before?” Allison steered Vanya towards the toffee apple stand.

“I haven’t, but. Shouldn’t you be taking Luther here? Isn’t this changing Time?” Vanya said, dragging her heels. “Five said we shouldn’t be drawing attention.” 

“I really doubt this is a huge timeline math event, or whatever Five and Ben were talking about.” Allison paid for two toffee apples, smiling sweetly at the round-cheeked woman at the stall as she wished them both a happy day. She passed one to Allison, who took it hesitantly.

“It’s. Very sticky.”

“That’s the idea.” 

“How do we eat this cleanly?”

“You don’t,” Allison said cheerfully, her lips and cheek already smeared in toffee. “See?” 

Vanya tried a small bite and squeaked as toffee smudged stickily over her lips. They walked slowly around the field that the traveling fair had commandeered, gawking at the colourful tents and the creaking rides. “I thought there’d be animals,” Vanya said, looking around. “Elephants and tigers and stuff.”

“Nah, that’s no longer allowed. Animal cruelty laws.” 

“Oh.” Vanya looked disappointed. “That’s good, but. I kinda enjoyed watching Dumbo.” 

“That cartoon with the flying elephant? Heh. I don’t know who cried more, Klaus or Ben.” It had been one of their very few group ‘play’ sessions, years ago. Sir Reginald had been away, and Pogo had projected the film on the wall for all of them to watch. Vanya was the only one of them who had watched without shedding a tear at all. Allison should have guessed something at that point, really. 

“Probably Klaus,” Vanya said, thinking back with a little frown. “Um. Maybe we could. Go on one of the rides?”

“Sure,” Allison said, trying not to sound too enthusiastic. She’d been hoping Vanya would say that. “Which one?” 

They started with the dodgem cars, squealing with laughter even though they were the only ones on the old scraped cars in the tiny arena. Vanya bought candy floss before they got on the carousel, Allison perched on a giraffe, Vanya on a lion. Around and around, the tinny music grating over their skin, the air reeking joyously of plastic and sweat and sugar. Vanya whooped each time they looped past the dodgem tent, hands wound around the neck of her lion.

“Let’s check out the ball games next,” Vanya said, as they got off the ride, giggling and sticky with sugar. 

Allison opened her mouth to agree and jerked to the side instinctively as she saw someone reach for her. It was an older boy, a few years older, a skinny pale kid in a pack of grinning boys. He’d been trying to touch her hair. “Excuse you,” Allison said, with forced politeness. She didn’t know what it was about her hair, but total strangers tried to touch it all the time. Rude bastards.

“Just wanted to see what it feels like. You got nice hair, girl.” He reached again. Allison stepped out of reach. “Aww, c’mon. Be more friendly. Ain’t girls like you s’posed to be friendly? C’mon. Smile.” 

“Girls like me?” Allison said, smiling tightly. “What would a—” she looked him slowly over with open disdain, “—like you know about a girl like me?” 

“Look, bitch,” the boy growled, “I was trying to be nice.” 

Allison sneered. “You actually get any girls with a mouth like that? Do me a favour, shitheel. Fuck. Off.” 

“Allison,” Vanya whispered, nervous. “I… if I lose control…” 

“You don't do a thing,” Allison hissed back. “That’s how Luther and I got caught. Getting into a fight. We’re gonna walk away. Nice and slow.” 

“Doesn’t look like they’re going to let us do that,” Vanya said, tensing up as the boys started to walk over. Allison pushed Vanya behind her and took in a slow breath, fixing her eyes on the ringleader. Just this once. One more time. 

“I heard a rumour—” Allison hesitated as someone stepped in between them and the boys. The stranger was tall, nearly as tall as Luther would become, broad-shouldered, resplendent in a dramatic white coat and blue turban. 

“Find someone else to hassle, boys,” the stranger said. Allison could not place his accent. The boys stared at him, then the first boy spat to the ground and they slunk off. The stranger turned. Other than Luther, he was probably the biggest person Allison had ever seen. His long, nut-brown face was creased into a wry smile, his thin mouth near hidden under a florid black moustache, his dark eyes bright with amusement. 

“Thank you sir,” Allison said warily, “but I could have handled that.”

“No doubt.” The stranger stuck out one great palm. “Miss Allison and Miss Vanya Hargreeves, I presume? I’m Captain Abhijat of the Minerva. I need to have a word with you and your brothers.”


	4. Chapter 4

“This is not a great plan,” Ben whispered. He and Diego were lurking on a service walkway above the train platforms. 

It was a freezing night. Their breaths plumed in tell-tale puffs of steam before their domino masks. A train unlike any train Ben had seen before idled below at Platform Thirteen. There were no windows. It looked like a sleek white fish at rest, with golden horns and fins that tapered down to a graceful tail. Squares of light were patterned in strange grids along its flank. It was beyond Ben why no one else in the station appeared in the least curious about the not-train occupying an entire platform in their midst. 

“Quiet,” Diego murmured. Allison, Vanya, and Luther were walking across to the platform. Five was nowhere to be seen, and hopefully, Klaus was keeping an eye out closer to the station entrance like he was supposed to. 

Ben swallowed his questions. A slat of light opened in the flank of the train, and a big man in a blue turban walked out. He waved at Luther and the girls. That had to be the mysterious Captain Abhijat. Five had been fairly sure that he wasn’t a Commission operative when Vanya and Allison had described the incident at the fair. “Subtlety isn’t usually a temporal assassin’s strong point. The longer a job takes, the less they’re paid,” Five had said. 

“What the hell is he, then?” Luther had demanded. “Some kinda creeper?” 

“We should agree to the meeting,” Five had said. Luther and Diego started to argue, at which point Allison had reminded them all tartly that she had already agreed to the meeting, and was just informing them of the point in case they wanted to ‘be useful’, she was tired of all their ‘manchild bickering’ and Abhijat had ‘seemed interesting’. 

Some days Ben wasn’t sure why Luther was still supposed to be their leader. 

Diego tensed, his hands clenched tightly on the hilts of his knives. Abhijat was walking towards their siblings. “Good evening,” Abhijat said. He looked at Luther appraisingly, then back to Allison. “You have four other brothers.” 

“They’re around,” Allison said, folding her arms. “What do you want?” 

“I’d like to formally invite all of you aboard the Minerva for tea,” Abhijat said, with a playful wave towards his ship. 

“We’re not in the habit of taking food from strangers,” Allison said. 

Abhijat laughed. It was a deep basso sound, a hearty boom of a laugh. “Reginald’s done quite a number on the lot of you, I see.” 

“You know Dad?” Luther said sharply, ignoring Allison’s warning glance. “He’s never mentioned you before.”

“Oh, I doubt he would. We didn’t part on the best of terms. Normally, I wouldn’t come within at least half a century one of his timestamps if I could help it,” Abhijat said. 

“So why are you here?” Allison said. 

Another slat of light opened against the belly of the ship, and a familiar stooped figure walked out. “That would be because of me, Miss Allison,” Pogo said. He studied their varying expressions of surprise with his usual grave air. “Tea?” 

Allison exchanged glances indecisively with Luther and Vanya. She exhaled. “All right. Tea. Guys?” 

Ben started to get to his feet, but Diego grabbed him by the shoulder. “We should stay out of sight. As backup.”

“Pogo’s over there,” Ben said. 

“It might be a ruse. I don’t have a good feeling about all this.” 

“Yeah?” said a voice in the dark behind them. “You should probably get that checked, kid.” 

Diego whirled and tossed a knife toward the voice. The knife clanged against the walkway. Below, their siblings looked up sharply, startled. Something small blurred against Diego’s feet, tripping him. Diego cursed as he fell against Ben in a tangle of limbs. As he struggled to get free, their attacker jumped up onto his chest. 

“A _cat_?” Diego said, momentarily too surprised to move. The cat in question was a big, short-haired mackerel tabby with a red collar. It wore an air of utter condescension, but that was not an uncommon thing for a cat to wear. 

“Yeah, a fucking cat,” the tabby said, in a surprisingly deep voice. “No, you’re not dreaming, hallucinating, on drugs, or concussed. Can we hurry things along?” 

“Wow. You’re really cute,” Ben said, having always harboured a deep love of anything small and warm and fluffy. 

The cat shot him a surprisingly dirty look. “All right, kid. You’re losing an eye.” 

“Lieutenant Cashew,” Abhijat called from the platform. “Do escort our guests to the Minerva.”

#

“Jesus Christ,” Cashew said, when they’d settled down in the ‘dining car’ for tea. “You people are facing a full balls-to-the-wall temporal collapse and the first questions you have are about the fucking talking cat?”

“Not me,” Five said. He scowled as Klaus and Ben nodded enthusiastically. 

“Isn’t it obvious?” Cashew waved a paw at Pogo, who was busy pouring tea for everyone. “There were experiments accelerating sentience in chimpanzees and some wiseass decided to inject the same accelerant into their pet cat. Because why the fuck not, right? One morning I’m minding my own business, my only care in the world being the number of little birdies I was going to murder for the day, the next, I’m all ‘fucking hell they did _what_ to my balls?’ Can’t blame me for what happened next, really.”

“He blew up the metasentience laboratory,” Abhijat said. The Captain was sitting at the head of the long table, delicately selecting something that looked like a white ball of sugar from a bowl. Noticing Diego’s stare, Abhijat pushed the bowl in his direction, “It’s naam ladoo. Basically flour, butter, sugar, and nuts. My recipe. Try some.” 

“That wasn’t what I was going to ask,” Diego said. He fought the urge to rub his temple. “So a talking. Terrorist cat.”

“Excuse me,” Cashew said, offended. “Who are you calling a terrorist, you jumped-up little gremlin?” 

Luther grabbed Diego’s shoulder as he tried to get to his feet. “Long story short,” Abhijat said, “I took Cashew under my wing, and the metascience experiments were officially prohibited. Pogo and Cashew here are among the last of their kind.” 

“Let’s not get sidetracked,” Five said sharply, as Luther opened his mouth. “Temporal collapse?” 

“That’s what happens when a herd of jumped-up gremlins decides to traverse time and space without a Wells Machine,” Cashew said, sniffing at the bowl of raw mince that Pogo put in front of him before taking a delicate bite. “Honestly, I don’t even know why the Captain’s bothering with you lot. Reginald knows what to do and I don’t think it’s any of our business, but here we are.” 

“Reginald has always been rather heavy-handed,” Abhijat said, sounding meditative. “I wasn’t in favour of him being put in charge of the Correction or the Alpha-5 project in the first place. The man’s been a little… too intense… ever since Doctor Alexander passed away.” 

“The word you’re looking for is ‘unhinged’,” Cashew said indistinctly, nose-deep in mince. 

“Who are you people? Another Commission?” Luther asked warily. 

“That’s a complicated question,” Abhijat said. 

“No, it isn’t. The answer is ‘technically yes’,” Cashew said, sitting up and washing a paw. “A long, long time ahead, in a future far, far away, a small herd of hairless monkeys—”

“What,” Diego said.

“He means humans,” Pogo said. 

“—invented the Wells Machine, allowing them to roundly fuck with Time forever more. Though it turns out that fucking with Time is how all the advanced civilisations we’re aware of destroyed themselves, fancy that. Undeterred, a bunch of these hairless monkeys decided to use the Machine to maybe fix Earth, which was at the point of Machine invention mostly uninhabitable, thanks to a total ecological collapse fuelled by unbridled climate change,” Cashew said, idly inspecting his paw. 

“Wait, really?” Vanya said. “Yet another apocalypse?”

“Another bunch of hairless monkeys disagreed,” Cashew said, ignoring Vanya, “citing the fragility of the temporal equation and the necessity of a balance between free will and fate. There was a war, which seems to be the usual thing for your species, and one bunch of monkeys lost to the other. Leaving the triumphant monkeys to their spoils, the surviving loser monkeys escaped far into the past beyond the reach of a normal Wells machine, using the Hargreeves-Alexander theorem. 

“There they built a new civilisation, which promptly went to shit after a few decades due to things that are too boring to get into in detail. Most of the loser monkeys decided to escape into space in Indifference Engines or in hyperangel form, don’t ask, it’s too hard to explain to the unenlightened, but a small group decided to stay, call themselves the Academy, and keep fucking around with time. Like the Captain here.” Cashew nodded at Abhijat, who sighed but offered no further explanation.

They absorbed this in silence for a while. “Wait,” Five said. “When I was in the Commission, they never mentioned this war. Or another organisation.”

“They would have, if you ever ascended to upper management,” Abhijat said, with a wry smile. “The existence of an alternative was deemed too complicated to disseminate to the rank and file, many of whom eventually tend to grow dissatisfied with their eternal lot in life.” 

“Can we discuss the ‘temporal collapse’?” Ben asked worriedly. 

“That’s what happens when you cause a time distortion through brute force,” Cashew said, in between licking his other paw. “You people punched a hole in the continuum by forcing a displacement. The only reason the Commission _and_ the Academy haven’t been breathing down your necks is because everyone’s frantically trying to batten down the hatches.” 

“I didn’t have much choice,” Five said stiffly.

“Of course you did. You could have just died. Easier for everyone involved, to be honest,” Cashew told him. 

“What was Dad planning to do? He found out?” Diego asked, as Five glared at the cat. 

“Yes, well, the group of you have hardly been particularly subtle,” Pogo said, with a nod at Allison. “The behavioural changes were rather noticeable. As to what he was planning to do?” Pogo sighed. “Sir Reginald is a great man. Many great men tend to approach problem-solving with a particular sort of ruthlessness. I was an accomplice for a long time, I freely admit it. But I have my limits.” 

“He was going to kill us?” Luther said, sounding disbelieving. 

“Not all of you,” Pogo said, hunching down a little. “Just. Three of you.” 

Allison curled her hand tightly around Vanya’s wrist, even as Ben blanched and Five sneered. “Like to have seen him try,” Five said. 

“Oh, you wouldn’t have seen anything until it was too late, Master Five,” Pogo said quietly. “Sir Reginald was an operative of the Academy long before he moved into crisis management. He was a very good one.” Pogo patted Abhijat on the arm. “Abhijat could probably tell you stories.”

“None I’d care to remember,” Abhijat said, selecting what looked like a fudge and sponge slice. “Still, it brings us to the matter at hand: what we’re meant to do with all of you.” 

Diego quietly palmed a knife into his hand under the table. Bad angle, but he could probably sink one into Abhijat’s leg from here. Second knife could go for the cat. “What do you want?” Diego said. 

Abhijat patted his mouth clean with a napkin and smiled. “I want the one thing that can stop all this nonsense from perpetrating. The one thing that will prevent humanity from repeatedly cannibalising its own history like an Ouroboros. I want to destroy time travel. And I want all of you to help me.”

#

They held the family meeting outside the Minerva. “I don’t trust him,” Luther said instantly, with a glance over his shoulder at the Minerva. Pogo had already left after wishing all of them well. Watching him shuffle off into the dark, Ben had felt an uncertain little pang. He’d forgotten how fond he had been of Pogo.

“Well, obviously not,” Five said, tapping his foot on the ground with impatience, “but the question is, do we accept his offer? I’m for accepting it. Abhijat has a point about time travel.”

“Says the person who can do it whenever he wants to,” Luther retorted. 

Five sniffed. “My powers are restricted. Time travel via Wells machines generally isn’t. I’ve seen the damage those things can do. Not to mention any progress we make is in constant danger of being undone by the Commission as long as time travel exists. Also, I have no reason to think Pogo is wrong about Dad.” 

“So we confront him,” Luther said, glowering at Five. “I’ll talk to him. Surely he can be persuaded to be reasonable. Better than risking everything on some kinda pipe dream. We don’t even know whether Abhijat has a feasible plan.” 

“Excuse me? Is this the same ‘Dad’ we’re all talking about. Reasonable?” Klaus draped an arm over Ben’s shoulder. “I mean, the same dear old Dad who, let’s see, locked me in a crypt for weeks when I was thirteen, who locked Vanya up and made her take mood-altering medication and got Allison to brainwash her, who prepared you and Diego to murder Ben. Who, hah, knew exactly what would happen to Vanya and yet decided to kill himself, without leaving a note, so we would, I don’t know, somehow bond over the experience of loss and—”

“Yes, all right, you’ve made your point,” Luther said. He shook his head. “I still don’t think we should go with Abhijat. We don’t even know him. We should just leave the house. Hide somewhere and take stock of the situation. Maybe we can solve it ourselves.” 

“I agree with Five,” Ben said quietly. “It isn’t because I’m afraid of Dad. I’ve been doing the math while reading Dad’s journal over the last week. We’ve definitely damaged the temporal equation.”

“Please don’t talk about math,” Klaus said, poking Ben sadly in the arm. “Personally, I actually—shocker, I know—agree with Luther. If this Abhijat wants to destroy time travel, how does that even happen? If he’s from the future or the past or the future-past or whatever it is? Sounds deliciously bonkers to me.” 

Ben wasn’t fooled by Klaus’ insouciance. He understood perfectly why Klaus had chosen the way he had. Klaus hadn’t given up on Dave. Ben looked over at Allison, who was watching them both, her lips pressed thin. “I agree with Luther,” Allison said. “We should just leave. This place, and the house. I can set us up somewhere else comfortably. We can’t trust anyone but each other.” 

“I agree with Ben and Five,” Diego said. At Ben’s startled glance, he shrugged. “What? You’re the smartest people I’ve ever met. If the two of you actually agree on something, that’s got to be the least shit option of all our shit options.” 

“Impasse,” Luther said.

“No.” Allison looked to Vanya, who went very still and wide-eyed. “There’s still Vanya.” 

“I don’t know?” Vanya said nervously, her hands twisting in knots before her. “I don’t understand. The math, everything that Abhijat said, all this. I wish. I wish we could all go home.” 

“Then—” Luther began.

“But,” Vanya said, in a very small voice. “I don’t. Want to die. And I don’t want to be shut in That Room again. If we stay, Dad’s going to kill me. And Five, and Ben. Or worse, he’ll try to ‘fix’ us again. He’ll find us, I know he will. And. All this. It’s a mess.” Vanya waved at the world. “I want it to be less of a mess. I agree with Five.”

“That’s a hell of a Save the World slogan,” Diego said, his mouth quirking. “‘I want it to be less of a mess’.” Vanya blushed. 

“I like it,” Allison said. She breathed out. “I guess it’s settled.” 

“Really?” Luther scowled. “Five, Ben, and Vanya just voted the way they did because they’re afraid.”

“And they have a right to be,” Allison shot back. “Just as they had a right to be counted. Because that’s what being a family is, Luther. We. Count. _Everyone_.” She stared him down as Ben held his breath, and eventually, Luther looked away, clenching his hands tightly. 

Not that Luther gave up. “Allison. If we do this. If, I don’t even, if Abhijat somehow does what he wants, and. Removes time travel. You’d never see—”

“Don’t,” Allison bit out. “Don’t you fucking dare bring Claire into this. Don’t you _fucking_ dare. We’ve all voted. I stand with the group’s decision. Even if it isn’t what I wanted. Otherwise, what’s the point?” 

Klaus looked down at his feet. Ben curled an arm around Klaus’ waist, resting his chin on Klaus’ shoulder, breathing slowly until he felt Klaus relax. Diego pretended to find Minerva fascinating, while Vanya looked worriedly between Allison and Luther. Five merely smiled, arms folded before his skinny chest. 

“Fine,” Luther said. He looked pensive. “Fine.” 

Abhijat looked unsurprised when told of their decision. “Good. Let’s go.” 

“Now?” Vanya said, uncertain. “I… I left my violin at home.”

“And I don’t have my copy of Dad’s journal with me. I haven’t finished studying it,” Five protested. 

“Now,” Abhijat said firmly. “If I know Reginald, he’s already on his way here. If you want to come with me, now’s the time.” 

“Now,” Luther said. He nodded at Ben curtly when Ben stared at him, chivvying them all into the Minerva despite Vanya’s murmured protests and Five complaining that they only needed to wait five minutes more. The slat in the hull sealed behind them, and the Minerva began to hum. 

“Where are we going?” Ben asked. He hesitated. “ _When_ are we going?” 

“Great question,” Abhijat said cheerfully, and forged through the Minerva towards the cockpit. 

“You’re going to be… driving this thing? Is this a Wells Machine?” Five asked doubtfully, looking around. 

“Sort of,” Abhijat said, from the cockpit, “and Cashew’s driving it, not me.”

“The cat? Great,” Klaus said faintly. “We’re all dead.” 

“I heard that, gremlin,” Cashew called from further in the ship.

“Should we be holding on to someth—” Diego yelped as the hum burned into a roar. The air around them started to crystallize, turning the colour of madness. Vanya’s mouth was open in a scream that Ben could not hear, her hands going to clutch at her hair. Allison hugged her tightly, shouting something into Vanya’s ear even as Five gripped Vanya’s wrist. Ben was about to head toward them when he felt a twisting sensation in his gut, like an ice-cold knife thrust into his belly and twisted. He collapsed onto his knees, clawing at his shirt.

Klaus’ eyes were wide with horror. Ben could guess what he could see. They had sensed a breach in the Gate anchored in his flesh, and They were coming. A multi-segmented finger or leg clawed at his leg, one, then two, and more, something trying to wrench Their way out through his skin. As They struggled, Ben could hear Their voice echoing in his bones. They were laughing. 

Diego knelt before him. Before Ben could push him away or scramble back, Diego was hauling him into a hug, even though he probably could see and feel Them trying to claw Their way out right against him. It was the bravest thing Ben had ever seen. Diego breathed against Ben’s neck, hot and intimate and anchoring him down, the fingers of one hand curled into Ben’s hair. Ben clenched his teeth down until his jaw ached, trying to force Them back. Hold Them down and away from the only people he loved. Klaus’ skinny arms curled over their shoulders, his mouth buried in Ben’s scalp. He was shaking. The world warped, pulling them sideways, cracking

breaking

back. Ben breathed shallowly as Klaus slowly peeked up and pulled back. “H-Hey,” Allison said behind them. “We’re. Back? To what we were?”

Ben looked around dizzily. Klaus was older, back in his ridiculous leather pants and faux-fur coat. Ben’s cheek was pressed uncomfortably against a leather harness. Diego began to laugh, checking himself out. “Jesus fuck,” Diego said, delighted. “Finally. I missed being able to bench press my own weight.” 

“You are _so_ straight,” Ben told him, and passed out.


	5. Chapter 5

Klaus looked up as Diego peeked into the carriage. “Ben still asleep?” Diego asked. 

“Not a change.” Klaus pressed a palm against Ben’s forehead. “He’s freezing now. Was burning up just an hour ago.” Ben lay cocooned under a medical blanket of some sort, one that could change its temperature to keep its patient at an optimum. A drip was attached to his arm, snaking up from the wall. Everything was running off Minerva’s reserve power. Klaus had opted to stay with Ben while most of the others had been excited about checking out the world outside. He’d taken turns watching Ben with Vanya, the only other sibling who’d been equally disinterested in exploration. Vanya was deeply asleep now, exhausted and curled up in the furthest bunk.

“Shit.” Diego walked over and sat down on the edge of the bed. The tail carriage of the Minerva had been converted into residential quarters for multiple people readily enough. Bunks could be folded out of the hull where storage cabinets had once sat unused. The newly cramped space reminded Klaus uncomfortably of rehab, and if he hadn’t been worried about Ben it would’ve made him more antsy. 

“So where are we?” Or ‘when’ are we?” Klaus asked, trying not to stare at how pale and drawn Ben looked. It had two days since they’d arrived at God knew where and Ben hadn’t stirred. Klaus hadn’t really cared or bothered to listen in on the arguments. 

“Far into the future. Though not as far as Abhijat intended? Apparently, time changed and tech isn’t where it should be, something like that. I just left Five arguing math with a goddamned cat. I swear, every hour I think, if I pinch myself really hard, I’ll wake up.” Diego shuddered. 

“I think that about life all the time,” Klaus said cheerfully. He stretched out on the bunk beside Ben’s, folding his arms under his head. “This has been the longest I’ve been clean in years and I still feel like I’m tripping out constantly. It’s terribly disorienting. So what now? Another time jump?”

Diego shook his head. “No. The last one broke the Minerva. Abhijat said there’s a ‘dissonance effect’ in the timeline before the Wells machine is invented. Something about the temporal equation’s adjustments, something, something.” 

“Wow, I see someone totally paid attention.” 

“At least I showed up to the debrief,” Diego shot back, if half-heartedly. “Anyway. We’re stuck here for now. Cashew parked us in the middle of a wasteland. He called it the Nowhere Zone. We’re on the ground floor of what looked like an office building or futuristic mall or something. The closest inhabited zone’s a few days’ walk from here. The Minerva’s got enough food and supplies for all of us for a week.” 

“Okay,” Klaus said. He wasn’t particularly interested in the details. 

Maybe it showed. “Hey.” Diego reached over to clasp his shoulder. “Ben will wake up. He’s always like this after a bad jag.” 

“Not for this long,” Klaus snapped. He sucked in a tight breath and folded his arms over his chest. “I mean. You’re right.” He forced a smile. “And not like it matters right? If the worst happens, I can still see him. Right after, even.” 

“Of course it matters. Especially to Ben.” Diego drew one of Ben’s hands gently out from under the blanket and clasped it between his palms. “Shit, that’s cold,” Diego said, rubbing the hand with his. He pulled the hand up to his mouth to huff on it and realized Klaus was staring. “What?” 

“Nothing.” 

“What do you mean, nothing?” Diego said, frowning. “What?” 

“It’s, well, this is weird,” Klaus lied, rolling onto his flank. “This whole Caring Diego look.”

“I do care,” Diego said, going back to rubbing Ben’s palm. “About everyone.”

“Even Luther?” Luther had come out of the time jump the best off—his weird mutation was gone. Not that he’d then had time to celebrate, what with Ben collapsing. 

“Yeah, even Luther,” Diego said, if unenthusiastically.

“Amazing,” Klaus said, propping his head up on a hand. “I never could have guessed under all that—” Klaus waved a hand at Diego, “—manpain and angst and spandex.”

“Leather,” Diego said, though he smiled tightly, as though he was reminded of something he’d wanted to avoid. “Ben said I was straight? Before he passed out. That what you guys think?” 

“I don’t remember that,” Klaus admitted guiltily. He’d been too happy being Not a Kid Anymore to notice much when they’d first jumped. “But well. It’s true, right?”

Diego gave him an odd look. “You think so too?”

Klaus gawked at him. “Aren’t you? I mean. Look at you.”

“What about me?” Diego said, irritated. “Just because I keep properly fit for what I like to do with my spare time? Is this why you and Ben stopped hanging out with me? When we were kids?” 

“I actually don’t remember that much of our generally terrible childhood,” Klaus said, although he did. The bad parts, anyway. He frowned to himself muzzily. There _had_ been a point in time where he and Ben had tagged along with Diego on everything, especially since Five tended to keep to himself, Vanya was often nowhere to be seen, and Luther and Allison tended to do their own thing. 

“Right,” Diego said. He didn’t look hurt or bitter, just curious.

“I don’t know if Ben and I were usually intentionally hanging out and stuff. I just like to. Doodle on stuff or sleep or talk shit, and he’d sit and read, and we just, got along that way. Also, wasn’t there a lady detective?” Klaus said vaguely. Ben had said something about that. Something about how Diego had been accused of murdering some cop who Cha Cha had actually killed. Apparently when Klaus had accidentally dropkicked himself into ‘Nam, Ben had settled for haunting Diego. 

Diego lifted a shoulder into a light shrug. “Mostly women. A few guys. I got curious.” Klaus stared at Diego for a long moment, then he pinched himself. Diego snorted. “Fuck you,” he said, though he chuckled.

“Sorry, it's just. You've always been so... so _you_. Though, I tried women very briefly. A woman,” Klaus confessed, wrinkling his nose. “It was a disaster? Funny disaster, I guess. Taught me that I was most definitely playing for the other team. She laughed about it and we both got high. That was, ooh, years back. Think one winter she passed out outdoors and froze to death. Them’s the breaks.” 

Diego stared at him, his amusement fading. “Every time I heard about a junkie OD’ing over dispatch… I’d wonder whether it was you. Out there somewhere. I signed up for the police because I thought. With how our family was, sooner or later at least one of us was gonna get into trouble. And if I was a cop, maybe that could help.” Diego scratched at his ear. “I know. Bad reason. In my defense, I was eighteen.” 

“You’re a cop?” Klaus said, surprised. 

“Nah. Dropped out of the Academy. Got into a fight, put a few of the others in the hospital.” 

“This is my total lack of surprise.” 

“It was over Allison.” Diego looked rueful. “Another bad reason. Her first movie came out. You know, uh.” 

“400 Days of Summer,” Klaus said. Ben had insisted that he catch the film on opening weekend. Klaus had spent most of the film happily stoned out of his mind, but Ben had enjoyed it. 

“Yeah, that one. One of the other cadets said something about Allison that wasn’t nice, things got worse, I started punching, eh.” Diego set Ben’s hand gently back under the blanket. “Was probably for the best. I’m not exactly cop material.” 

“That’s an understatement,” Klaus said. Or maybe not. He’d met his share of psychotic cops. 

“So uh.” Diego glanced around. “Tell me to fuck off if you want. But I’ve always been curious. Are you and Ben…?” 

“Me and Ben what?” 

“You know.”

“I do?” Klaus asked, puzzled. 

Diego frowned at him. “You guys seem pretty close. And he haunted you all this while? All the time?” 

“Mostly? He haunted you as well for a bit when I was… temporally displaced. _Oh_. You mean. Are we doing the Fatal Attraction thing like Allison and Luther, except definitely without the rabbit deaths.” 

“What? What rabbit deaths?” Diego looked disgusted. 

“We are so not.”

“Okay. Forget I asked.”

“Not that we’re averse to the concept, given how our lives are already messed up beyond all rational measure,” Klaus said brightly, “but Ben has a type and I’m… not it.” 

“ _Okay_. Let’s talk about something else.” Diego grimaced, now visibly uncomfortable. 

“Nooo. No. Let’s not. Not, not. Let’s not. I’m completely fascinated by this topic.” Klaus rolled onto his front and stuck his chin on his palms. “I want to discuss it in excruciating detail.” 

Instead of getting angry and storming off, Diego sniffed. “Now’s not the time. Look. Abhijat said the current medical system is mostly automated. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t any doctors out there. We need to get one to look at Ben.” 

“Kidnap one from the nearest city? Have fun, I guess,” Klaus said. It probably wouldn’t be that hard with Allison.

“No kidnapping. Not really. C’mon.” Diego got to his feet. 

“My powers aren’t exactly useful for a not!kidnapping, or whatever you’re trying to do,” Klaus said, staying put. 

Diego shot him an exasperated look. “We need a doctor from a time before the system became mostly automated. Which means someone who’s been dead for a while. So. Get up.”

#

Allison watched Diego and Klaus wander off down the shattered road toward distant craggy buildings. The Apocalypse was less dust and sandstorm and wasteland as she’d imagined it when Five had described the future to her. This particular future looked… pretty. The Nowhere Zone looked like an immense forest, one that just so happened to have old ruins as bones beneath its verdant skins of vines and lichens and grass. The air was alive with bursts of sound from insects and distant birds.

“I don’t see what the problem is,” Allison said. 

Five looked up at her sourly. The fact that Five’s body hadn’t reverted out of that of a fifteen-year-old boy’s seemed to offend him on a fundamental level, and he’d been in a poor mood. “What particular problem? The part where we appear to be stuck in this timeline? That we’re possibly about to be embroiled in sectarian violence? Or that the two most intellectually challenged members of our family have decided to go on a picnic?” 

“The two of you talk _so_ much,” Cashew said, from ankle level. 

“Aww, aren’t you cute.” Allison picked Cashew up, cuddling him against her and ignoring his angry squirming. “I love cats.”

“I’m going to kill you,” Cashew promised Allison, though he purred when she tickled him under his chin. Five stared at the cat in disgust. 

“Diego and Klaus said they were off to find the ghost of a doctor to try and wake Ben up,” Allison said, following Five as he picked his way down the overgrown streets. Trees had forced their way up from pavements and bent toward the sun away from the sprawl of abandoned structures. “That didn’t sound like a bad idea.” 

“Assuming they even manage to conjure up a ghost from that long ago, assuming they can trust it, assuming… Never mind. Maybe it’ll keep them out of trouble.” Five looked back over his shoulder at the ruined building they were parked within. “According to Abhijat the Nowhere Zone isn’t very policed, so they should be fine.” 

“So where are we going?” Allison let Cashew down as they walked. The cat darted off with a grumble, disappearing quickly down the road. 

“I try to make it a point not to trust the assumptions of people I don’t know,” Five said. He scowled at her. “You didn’t have to come along.” 

“You said you were going for a walk.” 

“Clearly I’m not.”

“Clearly you are,” Allison said, and patted Five on the head. He ducked away, glaring at her. “Besides, if we do run into anyone, I can talk to them. Let’s try not to murder total strangers. You know,” she said, stepping around a crater in the road that had long been filled over with bright blue flowers, “I thought that a post-apocalyptic world would be less… garden-like. Maybe it’s just me. All the post-apocalyptic films I’ve been in were all filmed in various deserts.” 

“Nope. The apocalypse I was in was pretty much a wasteland. Because of the way it was caused. Since Abhijat more or less erased the Alpha-5 apocalypse by taking us here in his version of a Wells Engine—think he called it an Indifference Engine—some other apocalypse happened instead. Maybe the one about the ecological collapse.” 

“Doesn’t look too collapsed to me,” Allison said. They were a couple of blocks away from the mall now.

Five sniffed. “Just because some insects and birds survived…” He trailed off. “Never mind. It’s too hard to explain. What was it like?”

“What was what like?”

“Having a normal life. The movies and stuff. I always wondered. I never got to see any of your films, but I saw reviews and magazines and things.” 

“I don’t think any of that was normal,” Allison said. She started telling Five her favourite anecdotes, the ones she always broke out for press tours, hesitated, and started talking about Claire instead. About family, about what she’d done to Patrick and to Claire, to others. Five was quiet for most of it, only asking the occasional question to show that he was still listening. By the time she’d run out of breath, she was surprised Five was still listening, and said so. 

“Yeah, well,” Five said, shoving his hands into his pockets, “I missed you guys.” 

“Didn’t seem that way when you first came back.” Allison grinned.

Five snorted. “I was rather busy at the time, what with an apocalypse being imminent and temporal assassins being sent on my tail. If I’d come back to the day right after I’d left like I’d planned to, things would’ve been different. Also, I’m going through puberty again, which is not something I missed.”

“Aww. _I_ missed you,” Allison said. She tried to scoop Five into a hug. He scowled and flickered out of reality, reappearing several feet away. Giggling and surprised at herself for giggling, Allison chased Five down the street and he let himself be chased. 

They stopped only when Allison was starting to huff and pant. She kept herself fit for her films, but it was getting warm and she was starting to sweat. Vera Wang clothes weren’t made for this kind of exertion. At least the Minerva’s little trick had dropped her into the future with her sensible Ferragamo pumps. For a moment she felt guilty for being happy, for being happy when Claire was long dead or had never existed, then she felt fiercely happy for _being_ happy. Being happy like this was a shock. Allison didn’t remember the last time she’d done something this simple without a care in the world. Even when she'd gone to the fair with Vanya she'd been expecting trouble, worried about Father, worried about Vanya.

Five flickered into view on top of a long-abandoned vehicle, arms folded over his skinny chest. He hopped down when Allison merely grinned at him, hands on her knees and catching her breath. “Why didn’t you ever pick a name?” Allison asked, when they started walking down the road again, keeping to the shade. 

“I do have a name,” Five said. 

“You like being called a number?” 

“I got used to it. Dolores liked it.” 

The mannequin that Five ‘befriended’ and kept talking to when he’d been dumped into the post-apocalypse, right. Allison put all her years of acting training into keeping a straight face. “I suppose we all got used to it.” 

Decades of solitude would break anyone, let alone a child. Five didn’t look broken, didn’t act that way. Allison knew better. All of them were fractured in different ways, some more obviously than others. She understood what Five was hiding because she wore the same wounds, cut along the same lines, for different reasons. It galled her sometimes that Sir Reginald had been right about what their powers would do to them. The bastard had always been right. 

“Did you ever find any others?” Five asked. At Allison’s puzzled look, Five said, “43 of us were born that day. Granted, some probably died or were killed or whatever, but surely some of the others survived.” 

“Oh, that. I sometimes got the occasional fan letter from someone claiming to be one of the 43. Even paid a few private investigators to look into some of them. None of those letters ever turned out to be anything. Just people who wanted my money.” 

Five grunted. “I have a theory about the 43. I think the Commission might have gotten rid of most of them. It is, after all, a rather large anomaly. The sort of thing that they’d try to audit.”

“And we didn’t get ‘audited’ because of Dad? Or Vanya and Ben?” 

“I don’t know. I didn’t actually stay that long in management in the Commission. As one of the grunts I wasn’t told much.” 

“The other assassins, Hazel and Cha Cha, had briefcases that let them travel ‘when’ever they wanted, right?” Luther had said something about that. “Didn’t you get one?”

“I did.” 

“You could have used that to get back to the right time, couldn’t you?” Allison held up her hands when Five stared at her. “I don’t know what it was like for you. Just saying. I was wondering.” 

“All the briefcases were carefully logged. Especially their uses. The Commission’s always instantly aware of any unauthorised travel. I was trying to get home quietly.” Five’s mouth twisted. “Funny how that worked out.”

“Assuming Abhijat’s plan works. Would you be able to get us back in time to roughly where we were? In 2019?” Five studied her silently, tilting his head. “What?” Allison asked, defensive.

“Assuming his plan works,” Five said slowly, “do you think all of us would still exist?”

“What? What do you mean?” 

“Hey gremlins.” Cashew’s voice drifted down. They looked up to where he was perched on a partially collapsed wall. “The metaphysical discussion is very touching and all, but I think we have a situation.” 

Sitting half a block down in the middle of a large and long-dry pond was a very familiar black car. Their father’s car was unsettlingly pristine, and just as unsettlingly empty.

“Shit,” Five said.


	6. Chapter 6

Diego had once deeply resented the fact that he’d grown up with no cool powers to speak of. Sure, there was Vanya, who’d ended up normal—or so he’d thought at the time—but it was better to have no powers at all than to have powers that were so… _meh_. The affinity for knives was all right, sure, but he could only carry so many knives. As to his main powers? Why the fuck was it that in a world where there were people who could summon the dead, call in extra-dimensional creatures, speak a lie into truth, have the strength of ten men, traverse time and space… why was Diego stuck with the ability to hold his goddamned breath indefinitely? What kind of power was that? 

The older he’d grown, the happier he’d been about it. Diego watched his siblings’ abilities destroy them in a hundred thousand different ways, because that was the nature of humanity and power. Diego was the only Hargreeves kid who’d grown up without his powers coming to define him, a mercy disguised as a curse. He didn’t blame any of his siblings for what they became. Not even Luther. 

Least of all Klaus, who was skittering down the street beside Diego, occasionally flinching away from nothing. “You okay?” Diego asked, after two blocks. 

“This… whole area is not a good area,” Klaus said. He squeezed his eyes shut and shook himself like a dog. “Very bad area. There’s so much yech.” 

“Yech?”

Klaus let out one of his brittle, pitchy laughs. “It must be _so_ nice to be alone. Sober and alone.”

“What do you see?” Diego asked quietly. 

Klaus shuddered, looking around. “I don’t know what happened here but a lot of people died. They’re. Crowding pretty close. And they’re still angry.” 

“Recently? I don’t see any bodies. Or signs of violence.” Diego jogged over to the closest building, peering through cloudy glass. Like the rest of the city, even the interior was overgrown and smelled of loam and leaf rot. 

“I don’t know about recently.”

“How did they die?” 

“I don’t even know how to describe it. Like they got popped open like balloons.” Klaus laughed nervously, whirling around and pointing in different directions. “Pow! Pow!” 

“Tell them to go away,” Diego said. He caught Klaus by his shoulders and squeezed. “They’re not really here anyway.” 

“Only to you,” Klaus mumbled, rubbing at his head. “I don’t really. _Tell_ ghosts what to do. They’re just there. Like furniture, haha, lots of, of, popped open furniture, Jesus—”

“Klaus. Hey. Sure you can tell them what to do. That’s what you _do_. If you can summon the dead, you can definitely do the opposite. Send them away.”

“I’ve never been able to do that I tried I tried in the crypt I—”

“Hey. Look at me, brother.” Diego met Klaus’ anguished stare. “You can. I’ve seen you do amazing things for the rest of us when it mattered. So. Ben needs you now. Think about that. Ben needs you.” 

“Okay,” Klaus mumbled. “Okay.” He clenched his fists in front of his chest, digging his nails into his palms. “Okay, okay,” Klaus muttered, whispering a constant litany. Blue light sparked between his fingers. He jerked his head to the side, as though listening to something. Klaus’ breathing slowed as he relaxed, light flickering away to nothing. 

“Better?” Diego said. 

Klaus gave him a wan look. “Actually, it didn’t work.” 

“Try again.”

“No. I just. No. I wasn’t really trying to do that anyway. I was just. Listening. There’s something that used to be a hospital over in that direction.” Klaus pointed. “I tried to call some of the ghosts from there over here but there are a lot of them, I can’t really… We should get closer.”

Diego wasn’t afraid of ghosts, but given how grim Klaus was starting to look, he was kind of glad that the sun was still out. “Sure.” 

Klaus led and Diego steered, watching the ground, having to nudge his brother away from flower-choked cracks and rubble-thickened craters. He was starting to feel warm in his gear, the sun prickling the back of his neck, making him sweat into his shirt. Klaus had stripped off his coat and had slung it over one skinny shoulder. He was slender still, though the year he’d spent in ‘Nam had packed his waifish junkie body with sun-browned lean muscle. It was a strange look on Klaus. It was a good look. 

“What?” Klaus said. He’d noticed Diego looking. 

“Nothing.” 

“No, what? I’m not going to have another breakdown, if that’s what you’re wondering. I’m. Concentrating. Oh so concentrating. Concentrated.” 

“Okay, good,” Diego said. That was one other thing he’d used to resent. Later, when they’d all grown out of their gangly kid forms and into adults. He’d look at Allison, Luther, and Klaus and wonder why God had seen fit to deal him such a bad hand. No real powers to speak off, no brains— 

“You’re still staring,” Klaus told him. 

Diego turned away, watching the road. “Been a while since we last met. Before all this.” 

“Oh yeah. Uh. Ten, twelve years?” 

“You ever catch up with Allison? Vanya?” 

“Not Vanya. Allison I met a few times. They used to call her? When I was tossed into rehab or in a hospital or whatever. Because our dear old Dad wouldn’t bother if they called him so they called the next most famous Hargreeves out there. She paid for everything. All this time.” Klaus skipped over a crater. “Never really thanked her, because I, am actually, a very ungrateful ass.” He spun on the cracked asphalt with a grandiose gesture.

“Never too late to start,” Diego said. 

“Don’t you think it’s funny? That of all of us, you’re the one who took Dad’s teachings to heart. Protect and serve.” Klaus saluted Diego. 

“Nothing funny about it. I started doing it to help out the few friends I made in the police academy. Then I guess I just got into the habit.” 

“Ben said you work at the fight club thing.”

“Boxing gym, yes. I pay bills. And taxes. Unlike the rest of you, I couldn’t exactly coast through life after Dad cut off my allowance. I’m not pretty like the rest of you.” 

Klaus squinted at Diego. “…I feel like we’ve stumbled our way into a Not Very Diego conversation.” 

“How would you know? Before the funeral, the last time we talked we were kids. You don’t know anything about me, and I don’t know anything about the rest of you other than Allison, whose life is all over the tabloids.”

Klaus draped his arm over Diego’s shoulders. “Sooo. You think the rest of us are pretty.” 

“Is that what you got out of this conversation?” 

“Even… Luther?”

“Yeah? He’s an ass, though.” 

“Me and Ben?”

“What, you want me to stroke your ego? Right now?” 

“It’s not the only part of me that needs stroking,” Klaus said, grinning cheekily, so very close and warm and with that gorgeous bright mischief in his eyes. 

Diego waited for the punchline, waited and waited and when it didn’t come he just stared instead, the world slowing down. He had loved his siblings all his life, even those he didn’t even like, but of all of them, he had loved Klaus and Ben in particular, both of them too good for a world that had eventually conspired to ruin one and murder the other. He had loved them with a type of love that could only have taken root in someone as a child, an encompassing one that forgave disappointments and betrayals and distance. 

Klaus’ eyes grew half-lidded as he took in a soft breath, then he twitched and looked behind Diego’s shoulder. “Was that… round ball thing… there before?” 

Diego looked just as the silver ball on a section of collapsed wall raised itself on spindly feet and spat a pulse of light at them. With a yelp, Diego grabbed Klaus and hauled them aside. He drew a knife from a sheath as the ball thing turned to face them and tossed the knife at it. The knife glanced off, even as Klaus tackled Diego and rolled them off beside the rusted hulk of a vehicle. More pulses of light earthed themselves on the ground where they’d stood. Spheres scuttled out from behind walls and over rubble, angling to get closer. 

“We must have tripped some sort of perimeter alarm,” Diego said. He picked up a hefty rock from under the vehicle and tossed it as hard as he could at the closest ball, knocking it clean off the wall. Klaus had crawled under the vehicle, his eyes closed and his mouth moving silently, his clenched hands glowing blue.

Leaving him to whatever he was doing, Diego peeked out from behind cover and had to hastily duck back down as more pulses sizzled through the air overhead. He tossed another knife, angling it to cut through two spindly legs from one sphere, causing it to spin awkwardly and spit light at another sphere, blowing it up. Diego darted out of cover, sprinting for the fallen sphere. He ducked out of the way as it spat light at him and picked it up by holding on to its remaining leg. It was surprisingly heavy. Spinning around, Diego aimed his sphere at the robot climbing back up onto the wall, then whirled as he heard a skittering sound overhead to take out another robot that had climbed onto an upper level. 

An explosion further down the road. Something bluish and indistinctly human was pulling their arms out from the carcass of a robot. It flickered and disappeared, even as there were more explosions in all directions. From under the car, Klaus made a hoarse sound, as though fighting under strain. Diego bashed the robot he was holding against a wall until it stopped twitching and walked back over to Klaus. 

“That was awesome,” Diego told him, as he helped to drag Klaus out from under the vehicle, propping him in the shade of a wall. “See. You _can_ command ghosts.” 

“Oh, not really,” Klaus said, rubbing his forehead gingerly. “Some of those ghosts really hate robots like those, they just needed a little help along and ooh, I have such a fabulous headache right now.” 

“We better get moving,” Diego said. He hauled Klaus up, pulling an arm over his shoulders. Klaus staggered for a bit before shaking himself and pushing away, breathing slowly and leaning against a wall.

“Bit dizzy. Just. Give me a moment.”

“Okay.” The first robot that had attacked them was just by their feet. While waiting for Klaus to catch his breath, Diego poked at its shattered form with a foot. Its silver body rolled over, revealing a familiar black logo printed on its belly. 

“Is that…?” Klaus said. 

“Yeah.” Diego would know that logo anywhere. Other than Vanya, all of them had one just like it, tattooed onto their arms. An umbrella in a circle. “We’d better head back.”

#

Five had blinked on ahead while Allison had run through dead streets, following Cashew back toward the Minerva. She didn’t really know what she could do. She wasn’t armed. While she was proficient in hand-to-hand, thanks to her childhood and to ongoing lessons for her films, Allison wasn’t exactly… this was Father, for God’s sake. Father. The implacable presence that had shaped their lives whether they’d liked it or not. She hadn’t really mourned his death even after his body had been cremated, because she hadn’t really believed he could die.

Allison was growing winded by the time she came within sight of the mall. She wasn’t sure what she would see, but nothing looked out of place. “Catch your breath,” Cashew told her, peeking out. “I’m going to take a look.” 

Before the cat could scamper out, Five stepped out of thin air before them. “We’re clear,” Five said. He was scowling. “Dad’s come and gone, if it was him.” 

Allison clenched her hands tightly. “Vanya? The others?” 

“They’re fine. For now.” 

“What do you mean for now?” Allison demanded. 

“I’m going to take a further look around, try and pick up Dad’s trail,” Five said, and disappeared. 

“I don’t know how you grew up without wringing his neck,” Cashew said. He darted over cracked asphalt, disappearing quickly into the building. Within, Allison found Luther and Abhijat crouched beside the flank of the Minerva, which was smoking gently. Luther straightened up as he saw Allison jogging over. 

“Sabotage,” Luther said, gesturing at the Minerva. “He must have gotten through the Minerva’s ‘perimeter alarm’ somehow and busted the backup generator cells.” 

“Vanya and Ben?” Allison asked.

Vanya peeked out of the Minerva at the sound of her name and looked relieved when she saw Allison. “You’re back. Uh, Ben’s still. The same. Which isn’t good, because. We’ve lost power and. He’s really warm right now.” 

“I’ll help,” Allison said, leaving Cashew and Abhijat arguing in a language she didn’t understand. Luther followed her in. Vanya had found a bag of ice from somewhere that she’d poured into a storage bin. Luther picked the bin up and carried it over to Ben. As they stripped off Ben’s shirt, Allison said, “What happened?”

“I don’t know. I was watching Ben and suddenly the lights went off.” The tail end of the Minerva was dark, lit only by some sort of ball that someone had set beside the bed. “I went outside with Abhijat and there was a hole in the side of the Minerva, I wasn’t sure what had happened but Abhijat told me the power was down and to do what I could for Ben.”

“Where were you?” Allison asked Luther. 

“I was… seeing if there was anything useful nearby,” Luther said, as he soaked towels in the bucket. “I came back when I saw the smoke.” 

“Dad’s back,” Allison said grimly. “We found his car. Luther. Diego and Klaus, they’re still out there, I don’t know—”

“Diego can take care of himself. And he’ll look after Klaus,” Luther said. He handed over a new towel to Vanya, who folded it over Ben’s forehead. 

“I think we can manage here,” Allison said, patting Luther’s shoulder. “How about you go see if Abhijat and Cashew need help?” 

Luther stared at her, then at Ben. “Right,” he said, and got up. 

Allison glanced back at Vanya as Vanya let out a soft sniffle. “Is Ben going to die?” Vanya whispered. 

“No. I’m sure he’ll be fine,” Allison said, forcing a smile. “Things will be all right.” 

“Could you…” Vanya hesitated. “Never mind.”

“No, what?”

“I had an idea, but it’s a bad one.”

“How about you say it and I’ll think about it,” Allison said gently.

“Could you Rumour him awake?” 

“My powers don’t work on the unconscious.” Allison carefully pushed up one of Ben’s eyelids, revealing the white beneath. 

“I don’t think he’s really unconscious. I’ve been writing down notes. Just. I thought maybe it would be a good idea if we had to end up finding a doctor or something. The hot and cold phases aren’t random. Most of the time, his body’s like this. Fever hot. But when Diego or Klaus are nearby, he goes cold.” 

“What does that even mean? Is he allergic to us or something?” Not that it sounded like any allergic reaction Allison had ever heard of. 

“Maybe he fights whatever’s happening to him harder when he’s near people he really wants to fight for,” Vanya said, replacing the towel on Ben’s chest. “Which means. He knows we’re here. He can probably hear you. And besides, remember before? The family meeting in the kitchen? Ben said that if he was unconscious, They’d eat him. Maybe he’s not really unconscious. Since he’s still here.” 

“It’s worth a shot, I guess.” Allison looked uneasily at Ben’s slow-breathing body. “What should I say? That he should wake up?” That sounded inadequate. 

“Tell him he’s stronger than Them,” Vanya said. She squeezed her fingers together. “That might help?”

“Them?”

“That’s what Dad called the… the stuff he could summon. Them. Dad said it to me once, when I asked him a question during that train rescue mission in New Jersey.”

“Oh, right.” Allison hadn’t remembered much of that mission. Stopping runaway trains was more of a Luther and Ben thing. The rest of them had been relegated to triage and crowd control. “Okay. I’ll give it a shot.” She bent to Ben’s ear and whispered, “I heard a rumour that you’re stronger than Them.” 

Ben’s body convulsed, a low strangled sound clawing out from deep in his throat. Allison pressed a palm to Ben’s forehead. “Ben?”

Vanya held Ben’s wrist. “His temperature’s changing. I think it’s working?” 

Allison shook Ben’s shoulders gently. “I heard a rumour that you woke up.” 

Ben arched off the bed, hands twisting into claws. His eyes opened wide and Vanya screamed—there were pale pits of light instead of Ben’s kind brown eyes. The air began to smell of mildew and rot. Ben started to shake, arched in the air, strange things rippling under his skin and over his ribs. His mouth yawned open, wider and wider, exposing the foaming dark within. 

“Ben!” Allison bent to Ben’s ear. “I heard a rumour that you—”

 _SILENCE._ Something flung Allison back, sending her and Vanya spinning across the narrow corridor between bunks. Vanya had her hands clutched over her head. She screamed as the carriage around Ben blasted away, furniture and hull and all, leaving Ben suspended in his twisted shape in the air. Light was cracking down over his skin, over his chest and tracing his ribs, tracing more and more cracks until there was more light than skin, then no skin left. Through the light that burned away all shadow around him, something seemed to shiver in the air all around Ben, organic and twisting. 

Something whistled loudly in the air. Allison only knew the sound from her films. Sniper fire. The bullet blew a chunk through Ben’s chest where his heart would be. Vanya jerked against Allison with a cry of horror. Allison hauled them both behind a bunk. 

“Allison!” Luther yelled from behind the Minerva. “Allison!” 

“Someone shot Ben!” Allison yelled back. She choked down the sobs threatening to wedge themselves down her throat. “Someone—” _killed Ben_ , she wanted to say, but now she was looking back at Ben and the hole punched through his slender frame was sealing quickly, stitching together out of roiling dark and papering quickly down with light. 

There was no blood but she couldn’t tell if Ben was breathing, if they were all going to die here, killed by Dad, their terrible awful Father who had already ruined all of them. She screamed, “I heard a rumour that your rifle malfunctioned!” and in the distance somewhere there was the sound of a familiar voice cursing, quickly swallowed away by the sound of a deep heartbeat, slow and steady, coming from Ben. The air shook with insectile laughter that Allison could somehow feel but not hear, a hungry joyous sound. 

“Can you do something?” Luther was asking, asking Abhijat or the world or whoever, and Abhijat laughed instead, hearty and carefree, the laughter of a man who had done what he’d wanted. The space around Ben was too bright now to see, a pulsing sphere of light and unreality. 

“What do I do?” Vanya asked, her hand clenched over Allison's arm. “What do we do?” 

“Ben! I heard a rumour…” Allison trailed off, shaking. What should she say? “Ben, I heard a—” Klaus charged past, Diego close on his heels. They ran right into the light and the shimmer without slowing down. A concussive wave of force blasted outward, toppling bunks, making something groan overhead. Something crashed in the distance and cracked overhead and Five stepped out of the air right before them, eyes wide. 

“Run!” he said, hauling Vanya to her feet. They stumbled out of the Minerva, turning their eyes away from the light. The ceiling caved. Allison froze as she saw the slab falling towards them, trailing dust and plaster. Vanya cried out. Something rippled through the air right above her. The slab cracked, slowed, then was flung away. 

“Ben!” Allison yelled, as Vanya and Five hauled at her. 

“We’ve got to get out of here,” Five snapped. “We’ve got to—” 

The world came down. Allison flung herself on top of Five and Vanya instinctively, even as Five snarled at her and twisted against them. Luther yelled her name. Allison braced for an impact that never came. 

In the shivering dark, she cautiously got to her feet. The air smelled dense with decay. “Luther?” Allison called. “Ben? Diego?” 

“Here,” Luther said, somewhere to the left. Five was muttering something under his breath somewhere by her feet. Light flared up from the small torch in his hands. 

“Allison!” Vanya was staring at the ceiling. 

Allison looked, dreading what she would see. Dust and bits of plaster were trickling down all around them as pale rain. The ceiling was inches away, the great slabs held up in uneven waves that shimmered and shook and laughed without noise. With each heartbeat, different sections would flare into scaly or slimy reality and then dull back down, turning translucent again.

“Ben,” Allison said. She ignored Five’s grab for her ankle and stumbled toward where Ben had been. “Ben.” Something overhead groaned, a metallic warning of something pushed past strain. “Ben.” 

“Help me,” Ben gasped somewhere in the gloom. “Over here.” 

“Five, I need light,” Allison said. There was a pause, then light arced over past her. Ben was crouched over Klaus and Diego. He looked up and Allison stumbled to a halt. Ben’s eyes were empty with darkness. 

Ben didn’t seem to notice her hesitation. “They’re fighting me. They don’t want to be… They’re listening to me for now but. Maybe not for much longer. Need all of you to go. While you can. Take Diego and Klaus.” 

“Luther,” Allison said. She forced herself to take a step over. “Help us.” 

“Allison, stay back. It’s not safe.” 

“Luther.” 

“Back off, Allison. Look at Ben. Diego and Klaus are probably dead.” 

“He wouldn’t hurt them,” Allison grit out. “And you’re a fucking coward.” She took another step over. Footsteps behind her. Vanya was by her side, shivering. Together they forged past rubble to Ben. Vanya managed to pull Klaus up, hauling an arm over her shoulder. Still breathing. Then Luther was there, avoiding her eyes as he scooped Diego up. 

As Allison moved to help Vanya, Ben said, “Wait. Allison. There’s something I want you to do for me.” 

“Allison,” Luther said warily. He flinched as light spilled in somewhere to their right. Reality shifted before the gap that Ben—or Them—had punched through the rubble. 

“Get everyone outside,” Allison said. She clenched her hands. “Now.” Five flickered in beside Vanya and pulled Klaus’ other arm over his shoulder. They started to carry Klaus past Luther. Luther stared at Allison for a long moment, then he bowed his head and started to walk. 

“Okay,” Allison said. She forced herself to walk closer. It got easier as she got closer. She hugged Ben, resting her chin on her shoulder. His body pulsed, growing warm, then cold. She couldn’t help feeling for his chest, where the high caliber bullet should’ve left a gaping wound. It was smooth, not even scarred. “What do you want me to do?” 

“I watched your first film,” Ben whispered. His eyes were squeezed shut. “It was awesome. I didn’t get to catch many of the others though. Klaus wasn't usually in the right... frame of mind.” 

“Wasn’t my best,” Allison said, patting Ben’s shoulders and back. “Someday, maybe we’d watch a couple of the better ones together.” 

Ben took in a few, slow breaths. “I want you to tell me a rumour.” 

“Okay.” 

“Tell me that my heart’s going to stop in two minutes.” Ben shivered violently, gasping for air. “Then you run for the light. Don’t look back.” 

Allison shook her head, her eyes welling up with tears. “I won’t. You’re my brother. I won’t.” 

“They’re all awake now. Not just the one I used to call on. They’re _all_ trying to get through me,” Ben frowned. He spoke a word in a slippery coughing language, then he grit his teeth. Breathed. “I can barely hold Them. They’re so hungry. Always so hungry. They want to eat the world.” Something groaned in the ceiling. “Hurry.” 

“No. No. I’m done. I’m not going to kill you. I’m going to stand right here, and… and I’m going to watch you control those things like you always have. To protect us.” Allison winced as something thundered down behind them. Dust blew out around them both from the impact. 

From the light beyond, Vanya yelled, “Allison!” 

Allison clung to Ben. “I know you can do it. I’m not even going to use my powers. There's no point. My powers don’t work when something is true.” 

“Please,” Ben whispered. 

“No. Diego and Klaus ran straight into… whatever it was around you… and they weren’t hurt. You won’t hurt me either.” As Ben shuddered against her but said nothing, Allison said, “You wanted to know about my other films? My second one, it was called Forgetting Sarah Marshall. With… with Jason Segel. I was too young for it, the role was meant to go to Mila Kunis but I got to meet the casting director and… and I told him a rumour that I was perfect for the role.” Something else thundered down closer by. Light filtered through the great gap where that part of the ceiling had been, burning through the dust. She started to walk them both towards the gap. Ben walked with her passively, breathing deeply. 

“My third film, that was one of my favourites. Zombieland. Woody Harrelson was such a blast to work with. And that film, it’s really funny. My first post-apocalyptic film. Zombies took over the world. I did a film that same year that was the biggest one of my career, but my face wasn’t even in that film, it was all blue CG. You might’ve seen the posters. Same director who made the Titanic.” 

The ceiling was shaking lower and lower around them. Allison talked until they were in the clear. Nice and slow, keeping her voice tightly controlled. Calm. Slow. She didn’t even break pace once they were in the light. Around them the last of the falling ceiling shuddered down with a rolling roar, briefly blocking out most of the light with dust. Ben sagged in her arms, making her stagger a step. His eyes were closed as his breathing evened into the gentle cadence of sleep. Allison let out a slow breath, pressing her hand to Ben’s throat. Temperature felt normal. 

Behind her, someone thumbed the safety off a gun. “Well done, Number Three,” said Sir Reginald.


	7. Chapter 7

Waking up to Luther and Diego having an argument at the top of their voices was so familiar that Klaus just rolled over and tried to go back to sleep. Reality caught up, and he sat bolt upright with a yelp. “Ben!” 

Vanya squeaked and fell off her chair. Klaus looked around wildly. They were in a building he didn’t recognise, the walls rich with climbing plants, the floor mostly intact. If he had to guess, he’d have said it was an art museum of some kind once. The paintings on the walls were overgrown, as were the few remaining sculptures on plinths. There was an acrid smell that he couldn’t place. He’d been lying on a corner on a pile of dusty old rags. Luther and Diego were arguing next to Abhijat, who was tied to a chair with cables. Cashew was crouched in an old glass fish tank, looking extremely aggrieved for a small animal. It was night outside, and the museum was lit by a small torch and a couple of glowing spheres. 

“Where’s Ben?” Klaus asked. “And Allison? And Five?” 

“Five went off to look for Dad,” Vanya said softly. “Allison and Ben…” She trailed off. “We think they didn’t make it, but could you check?” 

Luther and Diego clustered over anxiously, pushing at each other. Klaus flinched and Vanya stood up, holding up her hands and standing in their way. “Wait, all right? Wait. Give him some space,” Vanya said.

“We’ve waited long enough. We should’ve kept on searching the ruin,” Luther said angrily. “If you and Klaus hadn’t run right into the light—”

“How is it our fucking fault?” Diego snarled. “As far as I know, Klaus and I returned to Ben on the verge of going fucking nuclear and he was _fine_ when we left him—”

“Be _quiet_ ,” Vanya hissed. She sucked in a thin breath. “Please.” 

“The lot of you are a joke,” Cashew said from the tank. “Just kill me now.” 

Diego glared at the cat, then he shook his head and sat down heavily on the rags. He didn’t look at Klaus, his hands clenched together. Klaus had run into the light because Ben had been there, he remembered that much. He didn’t know what happened after that. He breathed in. Out. Closed his eyes and _reached_. 

When he looked up, Luther was pacing back and forth in front of Abhijat and Cashew. “Nothing,” Klaus said. “They’re not dead.” 

Diego sprang to his feet. “So they could be dying under all that rubble,” Luther said sharply. He grabbed the torch and charged out into the night.

“Wait, goddamn it,” Diego said, running after Luther. Klaus watched them go blearily, lying back down on the rags. Vanya looked indecisively between him and Abhijat and righted the chair, sitting down.

“Any particular reason why we tied him up and tanked the cat?” Klaus asked weakly. He still had a spectacular headache. 

“Luther thinks they brought us here to get me or Ben to start an apocalypse,” Vanya said. 

“Really? What an astonishing idea,” Klaus said, glancing over at Abhijat. 

“Should’ve worked too,” Abhijat said, somehow managing to exude dignity despite looking disheveled in his stained coat. “The World-Eaters were already fighting for control of the Gate. Even if whatever had accelerated the process hadn’t happened, They would’ve won eventually. They were already growing manifest when the ceiling dropped. Not sure why it stopped. It shouldn’t have ended even with the death of the Gatekeeper.” 

Klaus wrinkled his nose. “So you really brought us here to… start an apocalypse? Really? What is it with you people and time travel and apocalypses? Can’t we all just aspire to retire nicely in the Bahamas?” 

“An apocalypse taking place at this point in the timeline, right before the invention of the time machine, would’ve solved the problem nicely,” Abhijat said. He sniffed. “Since I thought I had the last functioning Indifference Engine on Earth I didn’t think Reginald would be able to follow us here. Wells machines can’t get close. Trust him to have something up his sleeve.” 

“Why didn’t you try this before with Ben?” Klaus said, still mystified. “Before, when we were really fifteen? Surely it’d have been easy to snatch him up when we were still actually kids.” 

“A child wouldn’t have been able to do what he just did. I was waiting for Ben to grow up. Then he didn’t—or so I thought. Reginald fooled me with Miss Vanya—I thought she had no powers. Fooled the world.” Abhijat nodded at Vanya. “I read your book. Rather liked it, actually. In any case, Fate conspired to give me a second chance.” 

“Or not,” Klaus said. He rubbed at his eyes slowly. “If they’re dying.” 

“Oh, I rather doubt that,” Abhijat said, smiling sharply. “We’re all still alive. It’s more likely that they’re in Reginald’s hands. He always was a fine shot.” 

“I’m starting to think that I don’t like you,” Klaus told him. 

“It doesn’t matter whether you like me. Reginald’s going to kill your brother and sister sooner or later. The only likely reason why he hasn’t yet is because you’re still alive. He’d want to kill you first, since you can channel the powers of the dead. And there’s also Miss Vanya, who has the capacity to cause an Apocalypse as well.” Abhijat inclined his head at them. “Apocalypse triplets.” 

“Catchy,” Klaus said. He looked up at Vanya, who was staring hard at her hands. “Vanya? You all right?”

“I’m worried about Allison and Ben,” Vanya said. She looked up at Abhijat. “You know this world, don’t you? This timeline. You used to live in it.”

“Oh yes,” Abhijat said.

“You knew Dad.”

“Very well, to my honour and regret.” 

“Would you two know where he is? Right now?” Vanya asked. 

“Don’t look at me,” Cashew said, waving his paw. “At this point in time, I think my grandfather was still a kitten.” 

“I don’t know if I want to trust the guy who conspired to have our brother blow himself up and end the world,” Klaus said, with a nod at Abhijat, “and I don’t trust cats in general.”

“Specieist,” Cashew muttered.

“This Wells Machine was probably invented in a lab, right?” Vanya said. At Abhijat’s nod, she said, “Let’s go there. I’ll help you destroy it.” 

“It’ll be hard to get past all the security. It’s why I was hoping to trigger Ben’s abilities in the Nowhere Zone,” Abhijat said. 

“Do you still want to destroy time travel or not? This is your last chance,” Vanya said. 

“How exactly does this help Ben or Allison?” Klaus asked. 

Vanya shot Klaus an unsettlingly intense stare, then looked back at Abhijat. “I’m guessing a younger version of Dad would be there. He must have worked on it. You mentioned a Hargreeves-Alexander theorem.” 

Abhijat nodded. “Reginald and Doctor Alexander practically lived in the Wells lab for years. The excitement of discovery and all that.” 

“Is it possible for his younger and current version to exist at the same time?” Vanya asked.

“If he arrived here via an Indifference Engine, likely. The Wells Machines, rather like Five’s innate powers, avoid paradoxes. Indifference Engines create additional probability equations that…” Abhijat trailed off at their expressions. “The answer is, possibly.” 

“Okay. Good enough. We go to the lab and kill him. The older version of him would cease to exist. We know his younger self is there. Easier than searching this wasteland trying to locate his current self,” Vanya said.

“I like how you think,” Cashew said, perking up.

“I don’t. I don’t like this idea at all. If only because, well, what’s to stop Abhijat from killing us if you let him go?” Klaus said. 

Vanya smiled. Her irises were rings of pale blue light. “Me.”

#

Dawn was breaking by the time Luther gave up on the rubble and agreed to head back. Despite being sweaty, covered in dust, and somewhat pissed off, Diego was completely unsurprised that everyone was gone. It was just how the day was going, really. As Luther cursed and kicked over the chair Abhijat had been tied to, Diego did a quick search of the room with a glow ball.

Next to the old rags, Diego recognised Klaus’ terrible handwriting, etched into the ground with a key or a knife: _going w V 2 do hargreeves menooreh xoxo pls find aspyrin_. 

“Hargreeves what?” Luther said, when Diego pointed it out.

“Manoeuvre,” Diego said, spelling having never been one of Klaus’ strong points. 

“What does that mean? Did they voluntarily leave with Abhijat?” 

“And the cat,” Diego said. The tank was empty. 

“Great.” Luther groaned.

“I can probably track them.” Wasn’t like Klaus or Vanya would know how to cover their tracks.

“Wherever they’ve gone, they’re probably fine. We need to find Allison,” Luther said. 

“And Ben?” 

“Obviously.” 

Diego looked around. He could see footprints through the dirt, heading out of the room on the other side. The Hargreeves Manoeuvre was something Klaus had thought up when they were eight, when he and Ben and Diego had climbed up an apple tree and were pretending to be pirates, despite Ben’s protests that pirates were terrible people who often died of scurvy. 

_Wouldn’t it be nice if Dad never existed?_ Klaus had said, after they’d pretended to board an imaginary merchant ship and split the apples as spoils. _Like h-how?_ Diego had asked. _We could call it the Hargreeves Manoeuvre. Like that thing Ben described, where you stop someone from choking. It’s not the same but the name was cool,_ Klaus had said. _The Heimlich manoeuvre?_ Ben had said. _Yeah. If we could press a switch and Dad never existed. Wouldn’t that be great?_ Klaus said. _Why w-w-would you want to do that?_ Diego had said, puzzled, and Klaus had whispered, _I saw what he did he put you in that tank Ben and I both saw it he was trying to drown you until you were dead but you didn’t die and I hate him, I hate him, I—_

“Five’s probably still around,” Diego said, getting to his feet. “If you wait until the morning he’d probably catch up with you, and the two of you can look for Allison. I’m going after Klaus and Vanya.” 

“They can take care of themselves,” Luther said, annoyed.

“And Allison and Ben can’t? You saw it. Ben held up that ceiling by himself. Also, I’ve seen Allison kick a temporal assassin’s ass without even bothering to use her powers. They’ll be okay.” 

“Allison…” Luther trailed off, frustrated. 

“You know,” Diego said slowly, “when we were tying Abhijat up and I told Vanya that Klaus and I had a run-in with robots stamped with the Umbrella Academy logo, you didn’t look very surprised.” 

“Five and Allison saw Dad’s car,” Luther said. 

“Yeah, they did. But I thought you’d have been more defensive over me accusing Dad of attempted murder.”

“What are you trying to say?” Luther said, narrowing his eyes. 

“I’m saying that it’s an interesting coincidence that Dad happened to know where Klaus and I were going, that he knew Allison and Five were also out on a walk, that he also happened to know how to break past the perimeter sentries that Abhijat set up _and_ sabotage the Minerva without being seen. That he knew where Ben approximately was so he could set up a sniper nest with a clear shot.” Vanya had started crying at that point, when she’d described how Ben had been shot out of nowhere. Diego had just watched Luther. He hadn't even blinked. 

Luther folded his arms. “You think I’m working with Dad? Really?” 

“I think you’re the only one of us who actually loved him, you poor bastard,” Diego said, pityingly, “and you just really, really want to be back in 2019 with Allison. To the point that you’re willing to fuck the rest of us over to make it happen.”

Luther set his jaw, looking away and curling his hands tightly in his arms. “You ever wondered what would happen? If Abhijat really did stop time travel.” 

“It’d mean my life would become less weird, which I’m okay with.”

“It’s in Dad’s journal. We were born because something was changed in the past due to time travel. The 43 births were a correction. If time travel never existed, the thing in the past won’t change. Then we’d never have been born. You, me, Klaus, everyone.” Luther stared evenly at Diego. “You want that?” 

“You don’t know that for sure.”

“Maybe. But it’s a logical consequence. There’s a chance of it happening, a real chance.” 

Diego shrugged. “Fine.”

“What?”

“We weren’t meant to live past 2019 anyway, right? I’m not much into theory and the math of time travel and stuff like that. All I know is, Klaus and Vanya need me. I’m going after them. Whether you’re with Dad, against Dad, or something else? Whatever. I don’t care. But if you really love Allison? Rather than the _idea_ of Allison? You should stop trying to make decisions on her behalf. Because people really hate that shit.” Diego started to walk. Luther didn’t follow.

When Diego got a block down the street, tracking mostly Klaus’ footsteps, Five appeared perched on a wall above a car. “Heard what you said to Luther,” Five said.

“You agree with Luther?”

“That’ll be the day,” Five said, which wasn’t really an answer. He hopped down onto the street beside Diego. “It’s possible, you know. That removing time travel will erase us from existence.” 

“And?” 

“I’m thinking that’s not really a bad thing,” Five said. He smiled at Diego’s incredulous stare. 

“Speak for yourself,” Diego said, after a long pause. “Are you going to help me or not?” 

“I think you’d do fine,” Five said, patting Diego on the arm. “I’m going to keep looking for Allison and Ben. I’m good at finding targets.” 

“You do that,” Diego said. He solemnly held out a hand, which Five clasped. “I did miss you,” Diego admitted. “When you were gone. Didn’t get around to telling you. The last few days have been pretty hectic.” 

“I missed you too. Though I confess the sentiment rather surprised me.” 

“Ha, ha. Thanks for getting those guns for me, by the way. Hazel’s and Cha Cha’s guns,” Diego elaborated, when Five looked blank. 

“Not that it mattered much in the end. The world ended anyway.” 

“I appreciated the sentiment.” 

“You would,” Five said. He squeezed Diego’s hand, then pulled away and vanished. Diego broke into a jog.

He caught up with Klaus and the others when they were sitting in the shade of a partly crumbled bridge, having lunch. Diego had remained hidden at first, up until the goddamned cat had said “I can smell you, by the way, there’s only one of us who smells of dead animal skin and anger issues,” at which point hiding hadn’t seemed necessary. Especially since no one appeared to be trying to stab anyone. 

Klaus passed Diego one of Abhijat’s energy bars and scooted over to make room on the rock he was sitting on. “Food of the future,” Klaus said, as Diego looked at the bar in suspicion. “Tastes like cardboard and misery.” 

“That’s food printing for you,” Abhijat said, who looked annoyingly cheerful for someone who’d just failed to cause an apocalypse. “The Minerva’s onboard systems were never very good at it. That’s why I learned how to cook.”

“Hargreeves Manoeuvre, really?” Diego asked Klaus.

“It was Vanya’s idea.” Klaus nodded at Vanya. She was nibbling at her energy jar, hunched in on herself, but it was hard to miss the change in her eyes. At Diego’s frown, Klaus patted his knee, then left his hand splayed on Diego’s leg like it was the most natural thing in the world. “I notice Luther isn’t with you.” 

“He and Five want to concentrate on looking for Allison and Ben,” Diego said. Klaus’ hand felt warm over his pants. He tried not to focus on it, on what was probably just one of Klaus’ many little practical jokes. “Do we have a plan?” 

“There’s a way into the City-Eternal via the outlying waste processing factories,” Abhijat said. He gestured in a vague direction behind him. “It’s not that guarded because the whole zone’s poisonous and because the way into the inner city is sealed by a remotely-accessed blast door that can’t be hacked or cut through. If Miss Vanya can get us through that, we’ll be right under Wells R&D.” 

“Poisonous?” Diego said. 

“Sadly, even in the future humanity hasn’t managed to completely wean itself off plastics and toxic electronic waste—”

“I mean, how are we getting past that?” Diego cut in. 

“Oh, it won’t be immediately deadly,” Abhijat said, scratching his moustache. “What’s a little light poisoning between friends?” 

Diego stared at him, then looked at Vanya, who gave no impression of having been listening to the conversation at all. “Klaus,” Diego said slowly. “A word?” 

He dragged Klaus off some distance into a semi-intact office building. Klaus held up his hands. “Before you start, it really was Vanya’s idea.”

“I could have guessed that.”

“Did you find any aspirin?”

“No.” Diego rubbed his temple slowly. “And you think. Going along with Vanya. Is a good idea?”

“Well, why not? She had a point. Hard to find Allison and Ben out here and. Unless we kill dear old Dad one way or the other he’s just going to keep coming after us.” Klaus sniffed loudly, peering at dusty graffiti on the wall beside him. “Spiders.”

“What?”

“Do you think spiders survived the apocalypse?”

“Focus, Klaus. Look. If we both talk to Vanya—”

“The robots Dad sent. They weren’t after you. They were after me.” Klaus tried to smile, but the smile kept sliding off. “Because if Ben or Vanya dies, Dad thinks I can still cause the end of the world or whatever. So. While I’m still around, he won’t kill Ben. _So_. I thought maybe, if I stick to Vanya, going off to wherever. That’ll buy some time for now. For Five to find Allison and Ben. Not sure about Luther.” 

“Right,” Diego said. That sounded more like it. Klaus hadn’t seemed like the sort who’d care about theory or time travel math either. He exhaled. “I won’t let him hurt you.” 

“Aww, that’s the nicest thing I can remember you saying to me,” Klaus said, smirking, clearly working up to a punchline. To one of his awful jokes. Diego had long seen Klaus’ biting wit for what it was. Armour. 

“And yeah. Sure, I think you’re pretty,” Diego said, pitching his voice lower. Klaus blinked at him, his grin fading.

“I think you once said that if you were gonna date a man I’d be the last man you’d date,” Klaus said, after a pause. 

“Because I know I’ll be lucky to have you,” Diego said, returning Klaus’ words to him with a wry smile. 

Klaus stared at him, wide-eyed. “Ben is going to be _so_ jealous,” Klaus said, and before Diego could ask, Klaus was leaning over, leaning in. The kiss a quick and nervous press of their lips, until Diego stroked his fingers over Klaus’ cheeks and kissed him back.


	8. Chapter 8

“All of you have been quite a disappointment,” said Sir Reginald, as Allison knelt by Ben’s body and tried to make him comfortable. Her coat was too small for him, but she’d squeezed him into it anyway. 

They were underground in what looked like a disused train station. A train idled at one side of the platform, forever at rest, its doors shut. Desiccated bodies were pressed against the glass. They’d died trying to get out. Allison tried not to stare, especially at the smaller bodies melded under the frozen press of ancient desperation. Small spherical robots sat in a circle around Allison and Ben, their blinking eyes trained on them both. 

Sir Reginald—Allison called him _Dad_ , but hardly to his face, and never in her mind. Thinking of him as ‘Reginald’ felt too familiar, and thinking of him as ‘Dad’ was a lie. Only an honorific seemed appropriate, appropriate to convey the distance between them, the remoteness of the fear and awe and loathing she had built over time within her for the man who had bought her from her mother for $15,000. 

“You’ve only told me that so many times,” Allison said, and wished her voice hadn’t shaken at the end, that she wasn’t still intimidated by this elegant horrible man, that every word he said didn’t make her feel small and powerless. 

“Should either of you use your abilities, the robots will shoot the both of you immediately,” Sir Reginald said, his hands folded behind his back. He was impeccably groomed in a three-piece suit and hat despite the ruin of his surroundings, his ever-present monocle screwed against one steely eye. “There is a bag of supplies beside you, and you will be permitted to use the bathroom at the end of this platform should you need to.”

“Wait, you’re just going to leave us here? Until what, we starve and die?” 

Sir Reginald sniffed, pausing at the foot of the slope up. “Despite what you and your siblings think, all I’ve asked is for most of you people to reach your full potential.”

“And Vanya? What about her?”

“Oh yes. Number Seven,” Sir Reginald said, shaking his head. “The biggest disappointment of you lot. And the most dangerous. Do you know how many nannies she seriously injured in the first few years of her life? Trivial reason too. She was a picky eater, and when she got frustrated at being told what to eat she would lash out. If I’d let her play with the rest of you, she’d have killed all of you in short measure the moment any of you irritated her.”

“So you locked her up in a steel room instead,” Allison said, narrowing her eyes. “Made me Rumour her into thinking she was ordinary.” 

“And it didn’t quite work, did it?” Sir Reginald smiled sharply. “Because it was partly true. Seven does think she’s ordinary. She _is_ ordinary. She has a terribly ordinary mind, paired with powers that she should never have possessed. Helping her suppress them was the happiest outcome for everyone.”

“But you knew. You knew about the Apocalypse. Alpha-5. What Vanya would do.” 

“I knew that the math hinted at a strong remaining possibility.” Sir Reginald leaned against the wall and folded his arms. “The probability was relatively low after my intervention, especially since Six was dead and Four had never been particularly stable.”

“Why didn’t you just get rid of us when we were kids?” Allison demanded. “Wouldn’t that have been easier?” 

“I presume you didn’t manage to prevent Alpha-5 in your timeline, given your questions. The probability of the Alpha-5 apocalypse wasn’t entirely to do with just Number Six and Seven. It could have been something else, something that perhaps you lot could stop together. And there were other probabilities in the future that the lot of you could have averted, had you been a functional team.” 

“Because that’s what you wanted us to be,” Allison said. She sat down, gently pillowing Ben’s head in her lap. “A team of pawns. Not your children. Not a family.” 

“Family? I never once thought of you as something so trite,” Sir Reginald said, raising his eyebrows. “Surely that was obvious to you from the start.”

“Guess it should’ve been,” Allison said, allowing her bitterness into her words, her anger and grief, “but kids are funny that way. Even after all your experiments, your training, the fact that you never even fucking bothered giving us names and left it to a robot when we were already _eight_? You were family to us anyway.” 

“What is ‘family’ but a social construct of chance and convenience?” Sir Reginald smiled mirthlessly. “Let me tell you a story, Number Three. For old times’ sake. In 1963 a president was meant to die. For various reasons, he did not, changing the course of time itself forever more. It was as though a bomb went off in the temporal equation, one that scattered shrapnel everywhere and defied attempts at correction. In the end, the temporal equation itself spat forth an attempted correction, in the form of 43 impossible children, each with the ability to bring stability to the temporal equation.”

“Stability? Through an _apocalypse_?” 

“The end of the human world was always meant to happen,” Sir Reginald said, with a dismissive gesture. “It is the logical end to all sentient societies, one way or the other. The death—or not—of a president in 1963 only changes the occasion of the apocalypse. It does not prevent it. ” 

“And each of us?” Allison said, bewildered. “But only Vanya and Ben are powerful enough to cause the apocalypse.” 

“The probability of a temporal proof resulting from some of you is remote. Hence your rankings, based on my calculations. Number Seven on a scale of ten, for the highest probability. Six… well, you’ve seen what Seven and Six could do. Five, whose troublesome natural ability to warp through Time could change the temporal equation in ways beyond the Wells and Indifference Engines. Four, who can channel the dead, powers and all. Past that, the probability drops steeply, but it’s still there.”

“So now what? You’ve decided to just kill us after all?”

“I’ve never wanted to kill any of you, girl. If I had, none of you would still be alive.” 

“You shot _Ben_.” 

“As a last resort. And it doesn’t appear to have affected him very much.” Sir Reginald began to head up the slope to the upper floor. “Now I have things to do. Behave yourself and I might even return you to whatever excruciatingly mediocre future you’ve eked out for yourself when I’m finished here.” 

“Where are you going?” Allison asked. He ignored her, soon disappearing out of sight. When she could no longer hear him, she slumped, stroking Ben’s hair. “He was always a dick,” she told Ben, who didn’t even stir. “And I haven’t been much of a sister to anyone these last few years. I ignored those of you who were easy to ignore and used my money to make the one I couldn’t ignore keep out of my life. Out of sight, out of mind, right? But I’m going to make all this right,” Allison promised Ben’s sleeping form. “I’ll find a way.”

#

They took a break during the dying of the day in a building with a purpose that Abhijat couldn’t adequately explain because it met a need that humanity had only created in the 2100s. “Addressing stratified mortality, something like that,” Abhijat said. The building was sturdy and wasn’t too overgrown, and more importantly, was fairly defensible, with a single ground entry and an intact rooftop.

“We should keep a guard roster,” Diego said, “since your sentries weren’t worth shit.” 

“They were sabotaged by what I suspect was an inside job,” Abhijat said, busy unpacking a small silver case of tiny bots onto the floor. “But sure, if you want to start off the long trek tomorrow with low sleep, be my guest.” 

“You could be a sentry,” Klaus told Cashew brightly. “Can’t cats see in the dark? Cats like night time, right?”

“I’m crepuscular,” Cashew said. 

“Oh, sorry to hear that,” Klaus said.

Cashew glowered at him. “Means I’m active primarily during twilight, dipshit. Dawn and dusk. But I’ve been awake too long today as it is. Cats need sixteen hours of sleep and since nobody bothered to pack any kibble I’m going to have to hunt for my breakfast on top of it. Don’t touch me if you want to keep all your fingers.” Cashew curled up on a counter. 

Diego glanced at Vanya, but she was already lying down on something Abhijat had found in storage, something that folded out neatly from a box and was soft to lie on. Apparently, it was meant to be packing material for larger objects. Klaus started to wander off before Diego could discuss a watch rotation, and scowling, Diego hurried after him. “Klaus.” 

“I’m not sleepy yet,” Klaus said, peeking up the glass shaft set in the side of a room, walking around it when the buttons he pressed didn’t do anything. They’d accessed the second floor via an emergency access lift since the power was down, something that somehow worked without power when Abhijat depressed a marked space on the floor. 

“The building’s empty. Nothing to see,” Diego said. 

“I like rooftops,” Klaus said, and insisted on using the emergency access lift to get there. “Funny how there aren’t stairs anymore,” he said, as he stayed on the marked space. There was a faint sound of cranking and groaning around them as they rose. 

“It’s the future.” Diego had overheard Luther saying something of the sort to Abhijat when they’d first arrived, and Abhijat had said that stairs were an outdated concept. Apparently, accessible architecture became the norm in the 2100s and Abhijat didn’t understand why that hadn’t been the case before. “I don’t even think there’s English anymore.” The City-Eternal was meant to be in America somewhere, but so far, Diego didn’t recognise any of the signage they’d passed. The glyphs looked like mandarin on a superficial level.

Outside, a pale moon winked down through a mostly cloudless sky. Diego had always had decent night vision, but the dense darkness that blanketed the dead world was difficult to pierce. “We’re exposed out here,” Diego said, trying not to think of night vision goggles and sniper rifles. “And there’s nothing to see.”

“Says you.” Klaus started to walk, tripped on something, and laughed as Diego grabbed his arm and tugged. “Aww, come on. We’ve only been up here for ten seconds and I need the air.” 

“Dad has a rifle, remember? He shot Ben? Still wants to kill you?” Diego said. He pulled Klaus back to the emergency access platform and groped along the floor until he found the pressure plate to take them down a couple of metres back down into the shaft. “There.” 

“It’s not the same,” Klaus said, though he lit up the glow globe that he’d somehow affixed to the hem of his pants. It bled the shadows away in its honeyed light, against the pale concrete-like wall and the sharp edge of the rooftop. Klaus sat down in a sprawl against a corner. “Allison and Luther used to do this. Make a little getaway somewhere in the house, try and sneak off.” 

“I know.” Diego had once stumbled in on one of Allison’s setups when he’d been trying to find someplace quiet to practice fighting his stutter. She’d been pissed. 

“Ben and I never really saw the appeal.” Klaus tensed when Diego sat down beside him, then he squirmed until he was leaning his head against Diego’s shoulder. “Now I think I maybe do.” 

“You said something about Ben being jealous,” Diego said. This was… nice. Listening to Klaus breathe gently against him, Diego could for a moment set aside the shitstorm of a situation that they were currently in, what with two of his siblings missing, all of them being stuck in the future, and Sir Reginald trying to kill them. He wished Ben was here too. Sitting in the quiet, watching the moon. 

“Mm. Oh yeah.” Klaus chuckled. He trailed slender fingertips up and down the inseam of Diego’s pants. It was ticklish and deliciously intimate and it made Diego’s breathing slow, hyper-focusing on Klaus’ touch. “Ben will probably kill me for telling you this, but I’m pretty sure he’s had a thing for you since forever.” 

“…Never noticed,” Diego said, surprised. 

“Yeah, didn’t think you would.” Klaus yawned, stretching out comfortably. 

“I thought it was more… You and him. The two of you were always doing everything together. And he hung around even after he died.” When Klaus hummed instead of saying anything, Diego patted the hand Klaus was stroking up and down his thigh. “Klaus.” 

“It’s funny,” Klaus said quietly. “I just. Got so used to him being there that I took his company for granted. Whether he was a kid or a ghost. But I’ve never been lonely. Even when I was in ‘Nam and he wasn’t there, I had Dave, had everyone in the platoon. And now, he’s not here but you are.”

“I think everyone took Ben for granted.” Diego nuzzled Klaus’ curls, breathing in his scent. 

He was vaguely aware that this should somehow feel stranger, unsettling at the very least. The charged tension in the air was familiar. Diego had felt it before with men and women both, sometimes messy, often heady. It’d never been this comfortable, this clear, as though the strangeness and brutality and the awful cadence of their shared years had forged a connection between them that was not one that Sir Reginald might have intended but was there nonetheless. Now things were so obvious that Diego wasn't sure how he hadn't realised it before, that he loved Klaus and Ben and had always loved them, in any way that they were willing to ask for. 

“Do you want to talk about Dave?” Diego asked, because he wanted to talk to Klaus about Ben but couldn’t find the words yet. 

“No.” Klaus looked up at him. “You want to talk about that detective? Patch?”

“Not really. But. She was always telling me.” Diego swallowed the rest of his words because he could feel them shivering on his tongue, waiting to break in the air. He listened to Klaus breathe, closing his eyes, thinking of the words he wanted to make. Not thinking of Mother. Not thinking of how he’d found Patch, dead on the floor in her own blood. “She was always telling me that the ‘brooding emotionally constipated’ approach to masculinity just made me look like a ‘right tool’ and a ‘manchild’.” 

Klaus shook against Diego briefly in a silent laugh. “I’d agree.” 

“Did you see? What happened to her.”

“No.” Klaus tried to pull his hand away from Diego’s leg but relaxed when Diego pressed his palm down. “Do you blame me? For what happened?”

“No? You were kidnapped. Besides, Patch… She was a seasoned detective. Years on the force. She knew the area, the risks. She would’ve known she didn’t need a warrant. She had probable cause, could’ve called for backup… it’s America, the cops have kicked down doors mob-handed for worse, no jury’s gonna indict a cop for… she. She made a bad call. That’s life. You make a bad call and you die.” Grief shuddered through him, clenching down over his throat. Diego counted his breaths until the ache lessened. “I don’t blame you.” 

“You blame yourself.”

“Yeah.” 

“Sorry.” 

“It was a long time ago. Me and Patch.” 

“Why does that matter? She was your friend.” Klaus kissed Diego’s jaw in a ticklish brush. “Do you want me to call her?”

“She wouldn’t have died the same way. Since we’re here. She probably wouldn’t even know me.” 

“Sometimes that helps.”

“Nah. Thanks for the offer, but. Let her rest.” Diego kissed Klaus’ forehead. He thought of the words, thought of how he wanted them to sound. “I think. After this, if there’s an after. We should talk to Ben.” 

Klaus leaned back, unreadable. “About what?” 

“About us. About how we might all fit, in whatever this is. I’m not that oblivious, Klaus. I t-t-think…” Diego trailed off. Thought of the words in his mind. Wiped his sweating palms over his knees. “I think you need him. That you love him, in every way that matters. And so do I.”

Klaus looked frozen for so long that Diego wondered if he’d misread it after all, if he’d missed the signs, or read the wrong ones. He’d seen Klaus’ fear eating him up when Ben wouldn’t wake, when he was clearly ill, when they’d realized they weren’t so alone in the future after all. He’d watched Klaus run straight into the shivering light without a moment’s hesitation, as though the possibility of annihilation was irrelevant next to reaching Ben somehow, saving Ben. Diego had run too. What else could he do? Klaus started to laugh, scrambling onto Diego’s lap, grinning as he leaned in for a sloppy kiss with too much teeth. 

Diego kissed him until they were breathing shallowly, until Klaus was sprawled in a comfortable tangle in his lap, his skinny arms curled over Diego’s shoulders. “I was wondering how to ask,” Klaus whispered. 

“Okay,” Diego said, which sounded inadequate even as he said it, but Klaus smiled mischievously and wriggled on his lap until Diego coughed and caught his hips. “I don’t think we should stay up here that long.”

“Why, what did you think we were going to do?” Klaus said cheekily. 

“Something I don’t want to be caught doing on a roof.” Diego hissed as Klaus merely smirked and rolled his hips, grinding his leather-clad ass over Diego’s crotch. He was getting hard, that had to be painfully obvious to Klaus. This wasn’t going to be in the least comfortable for either of them and it really should be even less comfortable, given who they were. Diego started to laugh. It was a helpless sound, pulled out of him by how utterly far from normal his life had become. 

Klaus nuzzled at the edge of Diego’s mouth and tugged his shirt up out of his pants, humming appreciatively as he skated his fingers over the muscle beneath, then pouting when Diego merely laughed harder. A pout should not have looked as good on a man Klaus’ age as it did. “What’s so funny?”

“It’s just. Us. This.”

“Ooh. Are we having an existential crisis or a moral one?” Klaus sat back against Diego’s knees, a fey king on his throne. “I _love_ those.” 

“Neither. Just. This family. Allison and Luther. You and me, and Ben.” 

“Ah, well, if you want to get into that. Daddy bought us from our parents and adopted us because the paperwork was easier than explaining to Social Services what he really wanted to do to us, I presume. Didn’t bother to name us himself. Worked us and experimented on us and trained us to be his clever little soldiers. ‘Relaxation is only allowed for half an hour on Saturdays!’,” Klaus imitated Sir Reginald’s fussy voice with unsettling ease. “No wonder we’re all so delightfully fucked up.” 

“If you put it that way.” Diego rubbed his hands up Klaus’ thighs, letting his fingertips catch in the laces at the seams. “I suppose we’ve never really been normal siblings anyway.” 

“I think we have been, for a certain degree of ‘normal’. And not. Both. Besides, I think ‘normal’ is the least of our concerns. We’re all consenting adults here, it’s the end of the world, I can see ghosts, Ben can summon giant monsters, you can… um… hold your breath, wow—”

“Thanks,” Diego said dryly. 

“Don’t be,” Klaus said, and winked. “I can think of _so_ many immediate applications for someone who can hold his breath indefinitely.” He palmed himself pointedly down the front of his pants and Diego found himself laughing again, even as he tipped Klaus over onto the ground and climbed over him, kissing his grinning mouth, pressed against the firm warmth of Klaus’ thigh, his lean and yielding body. 

“It doesn’t work that way. You. Ass,” Diego said, in between kisses and gasps of laughter. 

Klaus snickered and curled his fingers into Diego’s harness, his lazy grin shamelessly dirty as he said, “I can _also_ think of a lot of applications for someone who’s good at knifeplay,” at which point Diego laughed so hard that he stopped bothering trying to keep the bulk of his weight off Klaus. Klaus yelped, shoving at Diego’s shoulders. He squirmed and made a big show of being crushed until, still swallowing mirth, Diego kissed Klaus pliant again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> https://www.archdaily.com/364518/the-architect-and-the-accessible-city-the-prize-winning-essay and https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2018/08/staircases-in-space-why-are-places-in-science-fiction-not-wheelchair-accessible/


	9. Chapter 9

When Allison had first decided to strike out on her own, she’d realized quickly that her terrible childhood had still somehow shielded her from the realities of the world. She had grown up with four white siblings, an Asian brother, and a brown brother, but the colour of their skin had been irrelevant at home. They’d been stratified in different ways. 

Allison hadn’t really thought about it, because she’d always tagged along with Luther and Luther was Dad’s Favourite, The Leader. Luther was a sweet and funny boy who’d made living in the cold house with their cold father bearable, until one day it hadn’t been enough any longer. 

_Using your abilities for something as banal as personal gain will destroy you,_ Sir Reginald had told her when she packed to leave. He’d said it with the fussy self-importance of someone who had never needed superpowers to make the world listen to him, for he was a billionaire white cis man in the United States of America. She hadn’t hated him then for saying it but later—

—several auditions later 

(you’re not really suitable not what we’re looking for not vulnerable enough for this role too young too old too big not quite the right look we don’t do diversity hires too nontraditional not the right fit not the right hair not the right) 

~~but hey Allison is it can we call you Allison you’re pretty, gorgeous really, hey how about you come up to my hotel room to have a drink… no? Don’t you know who I am? I could get you a plum role in… Oh… yes… now that you’re saying so, I am feeling tired, yes, I’m sorry to be a bother, goodnight~~

—many auditions later, full of helpless rage, Allison had smiled and bared her teeth at a casting director and said: 

_I heard a rumour that I’m perfect for the role._

Allison hadn’t meant it the first time. She’d just said it because she had been angry and she needed to make rent and her agent was making noises about her maybe doing something else, or going home to her rich father. It’s a hard life in Hollywood, hard for everyone, and there just aren’t that many opportunities for someone like her. Allison told herself after her first film was a critical and commercial success that she wouldn’t do it anymore, that it would be the last time, that she would prove Sir Reginald wrong. 

—after the next rejection

—and the next 

This would be the last time, Allison told herself each time, except it wasn’t, and eventually, she got angry at herself for feeling guilty. She was a black woman in a country that often conspired to belittle or ignore people like her or worse, and she had been born with a power that made her impossible to ignore, so why should she consent to be ignored? Why did Allison have to grit her teeth and smile and accept rejections, or accept lower pay, wear fake hair, take cleaning lady roles or minor roles? Why did she have to do all that when she didn’t have to? 

By the time she no longer needed to use her powers, she’d long grown used to using them. Then Vanya’s book had come out, and it became a bestseller. Everyone was reading it, everyone _knew_ , God, the tabloids, the paparazzi swarms, the phones ringing off their hooks. She lost friends and lovers, made enemies. The house of cards Allison had built had always been fragile, especially from an attack from within. 

Good thing she’d known what to do. Deep down, no black woman was ever entirely surprised whenever they were betrayed by a white woman, even when the woman was supposed to be their sister. Allison had rolled with the punches and engaged the best PR firm her money could buy to save her career, and after a few weeks the buzz was firmly buried. When Allison walked by a bookstore and found her sister’s books in the bargain bin she had smiled a hard little smile and walked away, across the street, to buy herself a Hermès scarf. 

Life had moved on. Allison didn’t regret any of it, until she did. 

(I saw you. Don’t try to explain. I finally read your sister’s book, I know what you can do, that’s what you’ve been doing to Claire haven’t you my God that’s what you’ve been doing to our daughter how could you, did you do that to me too—you’re a monster, you’re. I want a divorce)

The life she had built after she’d left her family had been built on lies, especially the bits of it that she treasured. As to her family? It’d been a surprise, realizing how much she still loved her many damaged siblings. She loved her sister enough to forgive her, loved the rest enough to take a closer, harder look at herself. 

Now Allison washed her hands slowly in a long-disused bathroom, surprised that the plumbing still worked. She tried to think. Her prison was the entirety of the platform. Once she tried to hop off it or head up the slope, the robots would start making little warning beeps. Allison walked back over to the bag and searched it for the third time. It mainly just had simple toiletries, biscuits, and bottles of water. Allison uncapped a bottle and drank. She fumbled the cap when she tried to screw it back on and cursed as it went rolling across the platform. Allison froze as the cap spun up against the leg of one of the bots.

It didn’t move. 

Allison set the bottle aside, her heart in her mouth. She picked up one of the full bottles and rolled it across the platform to the nearest bot. It hit one of the legs, making it stumble, but the robot righted itself quickly. 

Huh. Allison bit down on the urge to laugh. But of course. This version of Sir Reginald was used to child-Allison, who hadn’t studied jujitsu and boxing for films, who didn’t do weekly self-defense sessions with a personal trainer to stay fit. She didn’t need her powers to save herself from anything, not anymore, and he didn’t know that. 

Allison checked the platform again. Not much cover for Ben anywhere. Not much light other than the couple of glow globes that Sir Reginald had left them. She’d have to make do with the bathroom. Allison grunted as she hauled Ben’s arm up onto her shoulder and half-carried, half-dragged him over to the public bathroom. She shoved open a cubicle and folded Ben as gently as she could in a corner. Leaving a glow globe on Ben’s lap, Allison backed out of the toilet, closed the door and checked for bots. Just like before, they didn’t follow her into the bathroom. 

Allison grinned. She walked back to the bag and picked up two of the filled water bottles. Showtime. 

The first two bots that she knocked off the platform beeped loudly and discharged blasts into the ceiling. Allison grabbed another bottle and sprinted for the bot closest to a pillar, knocking it off its feet with an overarm throw. She grabbed it as she slid behind the pillar and aimed it at a bot to her right. As she’d hoped, the discharge blasted it off the platform and into a smoking heap. 

Allison peeked out and had to duck back into cover as more blasts sizzled past. She used her bot to take out one that was crawling over the ceiling, then whirled and smashed it down on a bot that was skittering around the pillar. Wrenching off one of the sharp legs, she tossed it at an incoming bot, but it only glanced off. She charged instead, throwing her body into a slide to kick it off balance. They fell off onto the tracks. She grabbed the bot before it could right itself and aimed it at a bot that peered down at them from the edge of the platform. 

Looking up over the edge of the platform, Allison ducked with a yelp as another bolt spat past, close enough to singe a mark over her cheek. It hurt, but it only pissed her off. She aimed the bot she was holding at it, but the bot in her hands had stubbornly gone quiet. Cursing, Allison bashed it a few times on the rails until it started smoking. Hauling herself up onto the platform, she rolled hastily as blasts scorched the ground she’d been on. 

Allison ducked for cover behind a bin, wincing as the bot blasted a hole right through, close to her shoulder. Through the smoking hole was a pile of dusty trash. Allison picked up the heaviest-looking piece—some canister—and tossed it at the bot. It knocked the bot off balance, and Allison lunged over. Ferragamo pumps didn’t do much damage despite her attempts to stamp on it, so Allison settled for bashing it a few times on the edge of the platform and tossing it into the bin when it fizzled. 

Patting herself down, Allison headed briskly back towards the bathroom. The door was ajar, a bot starting to push its way in.

“Hey!” Allison yelled. She threw herself into a sprint, only for a tentacle to grab the bot and crush it. Dropping the bot, the tentacle slithered back into the bathroom.

“Ben?” Allison called. She cautiously pushed the door open. 

Ben was leaning against the wall by the sink, blinking owlishly. “What’d I miss?” He frowned and looked down at himself. “And why am I wearing your clothes?”

#

Klaus tried not to make it too obvious that he was checking whether Allison and Ben were still in the land of the living every so often, but he knew he wasn’t fooling anyone. Abhijat wandered over to his side when Klaus opened his eyes. “Still good?” he asked.

“Not dead yet,” Klaus said, because ‘good’ could be anything from ‘healthy and happy’ to ‘dying slowly under torture’, in his experience. “Why do you care, anyway? You tried to kill Ben.” 

“Wasn’t personal,” Abhijat said, with a sharp smile. “If Miss Vanya here manages to do what we both want, why, afterward—if there’s an afterward—I give you my word that I’ll help you rescue your siblings. Assuming they aren’t dead at that point. You never know with Reginald, in my experience.” 

“I’m such a psycho magnet,” Klaus muttered. Abhijat chuckled. His white coat was dusty and brown at the edges, but his resplendent turban remained perfectly in place. He looked like a rakish adventurer instead of a semi-prisoner, flamboyant where Klaus looked bedraggled and Vanya looked drained. Diego was ranging somewhere ahead with the cat, scouting. 

“On the contrary, I think I’m the most rational person here,” Abhijat said. He gestured at Vanya, who ignored them both, trudging grimly with her blue-irised eyes fixed on the dusty horizon. “The invention of time travel is a cancer on existence itself. I’m surprised nobody else seems to see it that way.” 

“How did you get to know Dad then? If he helped to invent time travel and you’re so against it?” 

“Oh, I wasn’t against it at the _start_ ,” Abhijat said, with a self-deprecating wave at himself. “I was in the military, terminal at Commander. Used to run a black ops program.” 

“Didn’t the world technically end? I thought you said the last war or whatever only broke out after the time machine was invented.” 

“War or no war, there are always people to kill,” Abhijat said. He hooked his thumbs into his belt. “I was also younger and very ignorant. Time travel sounded like a good deal. Not just to correct what had happened to the world, but to correct so much of what had happened before.” 

“Shooting Hitler and all that? Not that it happened.” 

Abhijat laughed. “More than that. Some people had big dreams. Maybe slavery never needed to exist. Maybe colonialism never needed to happen. Maybe… so many maybes. That became the problem, you see? The things everyone wanted out of history were too different. It became the same problem. History has always been rewritten by the powerful. With the time machine, they could do that in a literal sense.” 

“And that’s when you… rebelled? Along with Dad?” Klaus asked.

“We were on opposite sides of the war, actually. After he nearly killed me a few times—impressive for a scientist, he’s really multi-talented—we had a long chat over a drink. Having been adversaries for years, we’d developed a genuine respect for each other at that point, and we felt we owed each other that much. We hoped to bring each other over to our own point of view.” Abhijat scratched at his beard. “I was the only one who changed.” 

“You changed sides?” 

“In a sense. Reginald felt that time travel could still be a force for good. That it should be used for good. The World Government felt that it should be a force for stability. I felt then that it shouldn’t be a force at all. I stole an Indifference Engine from the laboratory and went on the run. There was a cat hiding in it, a runaway from a nearby explosion. The rest, forgive me the pun, is history.”

“So,” Vanya said, startling Klaus into flinching—he hadn’t realized she’d been listening, “how did Dad go from a man who wanted to prevent slavery to a man who thought it was OK to buy and torture seven children?” 

Abhijat laughed. “Power happened, Miss Vanya. That’s what time travel is, don’t you see? It’s the greatest power of all—the power to fundamentally change the world. Over and over again. To have that available to you whenever you want is the sort of power that’ll make monsters out of anyone. Sooner or later, you just start seeing people as factors in an equation. Even if they’re children.”

“You’ve got an Indifference engine,” Klaus pointed out. “Had an Indifference engine. Or. Will have? If your younger self is still around somewhere right now.” Klaus really didn’t like time travel stories.

“I know what I am,” Abhijat said, with a wry curl to his mouth. “As does Reginald.” 

Vanya shook her head. She squinted past the craggy peaks of broken skyscrapers. Since midmorning, they’d been able to see a spherical gleam in the horizon, the start of what Abhijat called the Buffer. “Why is the Nowhere Zone so empty?” she asked. “Is it really completely empty? The whole world, like this?”

“Not at all. There are settlements here and there. They tend to be desperate places, plagued by the occasional raid. It’s a hard life. Further out from here the grid’s too damaged. There’s no running water, sewage system, medical care, there are diseases, crops tend to fail…” Abhijat shrugged. “Some people prefer it.”

“So why don’t they stay closer?” Klaus asked. 

“They try, now and then, but large parts of the Nowhere Zone this close to the City-Eternal are poisoned, irradiated, unstable, prone to heating up during the daytime to dangerous temperatures, and subject to the occasional military foray, out looking for target practice. What?” Abhijat said, at Klaus’ horrified look. “It’s just the future. People are still people. Security shouldn’t be too heavy in this section though, like I said.”

“Why? It looks fine to me.” Klaus looked around. Lots of greenery. Birds and insects. “I’m surprised there’s nobody here.” 

“This entire area’s contaminated,” Abhijat said cheerfully, “but don’t worry, it’s not immediately fatal. Especially if we don’t eat or drink anything from the area. Besides, I don’t know what you lot expected to get out of all this, but you do realize it’s going to be difficult for all of you to get out of this endeavour alive, don’t you? I wasn’t joking about the security closer to the Wells lab. Even if we get past the blast door.” 

“Thanks for the… extreme honesty,” Klaus said slowly.

“You’re welcome.” Abhijat patted Klaus on the shoulder, unfazed by his flinch. 

Diego didn’t even blink when Klaus told him this over lunch. They were having their break in another building of indeterminate purpose, one of the few mostly intact ones this close to the City-Eternal that still had running water. “I figured everything was contaminated,” Diego said, with a nod at the overgrown walls. “Place is too quiet. You only see birds and insects.” 

“Great,” Klaus said.

“You’ve been poisoning yourself for years. What’s a little more?” Diego smirked faintly. They were sitting on a high stone bench, one that ran down the length of the otherwise empty room.

“Hey, my coping mechanism involved me getting high and sitting quietly in a corner. I’m not willing to hear a lecture from someone who coped by stabbing people,” Klaus said, poking Diego on the nose. 

“Stabbing criminals,” Diego said, ducking away. 

“I know I have many, many issues, ooh, all the issues, but even I know that stabbing isn’t an adequate or civilised approach to criminal behaviour.”

“You sound like Patch,” Diego said, though he chuckled as he said it. He started to lean in for a kiss, then went still and drew back. Klaus stared at him in surprise, then straightened up as Vanya peeked into the room they were in. Diego must have heard her footsteps. 

“Allison and Ben still OK?” Vanya asked. 

“Yeah.” Klaus had checked before he’d peeled his energy bar. “That is to say, they’re not dead. I don’t know if they’re OK.”

“Right,” Vanya said. She lingered at the door indecisively. 

Ah, why not. “C’mon.” Klaus patted the bench beside him. He helped her climb up. Vanya’s feet dangled in the air as she unwrapped her bar, and she nearly dropped it in shock when Klaus cautiously pulled her into a brief hug. “Everything will be OK,” Klaus told her.

Vanya let out a soft huff. “You don’t even believe that. I can tell.” 

“No, but I thought it’d be a nice thing to say.” Klaus patted Vanya’s shoulder and slouched against Diego.

“You were _so_ close to being sincerely comforting.” Diego poked Klaus in the ribs. He yelped but didn’t budge. “Vanya… uh, hey, I think I never got around to saying. I said some rude shit to you before the funeral. And afterward. Sorry. I’m not really even mad at you over the book anymore.” 

“Your apology was accepted the first time,” Vanya said, with a wan smile. 

“That was over the concert. I didn’t mention the rest. Not even just the stuff near the funeral. For things that happened when we were kids. Leaving you out of everything. Even though I knew how that felt.” 

“I’m not mad about any of that,” Vanya said, studying her energy bar without eating it. “I don’t even care whether we get back to 2019 again, any of that.” 

“What do you want?” Klaus asked, as gently as he could. 

Vanya glanced up at him with her unsettling eyes, and Klaus forced himself to hold her gaze. “I—” She froze at a roar of sound somewhere to their right, where the entrance of the building would have been.

“Get down!” Diego snapped, hauling Klaus and Vanya both off the table. 

So much for the Nowhere Zone being empty. Or was it Sir Reginald? Ignoring Diego’s grab for his shoulder, Klaus crabbed over to the doorway, peeking out into the main lobby beyond. In the rolling dust, surrounded by a couple of malfunctioning sentries, Abhijat had his hands up in surrender. Four people in black helmets and sleek black body armour had rifles trained on him. Striding through the dust, hands clasped behind his back, was a familiar-looking young man wearing a blue turban. 

“Well, this is unexpected,” said the other Abhijat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2018/12/05/viola-davis-sherry-lansing/2221110002/  
> https://www.glamour.com/story/why-are-there-so-few-black-characters-on-tv-shows


	10. Chapter 10

“You’re telling me that we’re in a dystopian future that experienced some other sort of catastrophe, that our father tried to kill me—”

“He’s probably still trying,” Allison said helpfully. 

“—and has gone off somewhere, maybe to murder Vanya, Five, and Klaus, and the Minerva’s been destroyed and we don’t know where everyone else might be?” Ben said. 

“Yeah.” Allison looked oddly upbeat for someone embroiled in what Ben could only think of as a complete ratfuck disaster. 

“Awesome.” At least her coat was comfortable, if tight at the shoulders. Ben gestured at her cheek. “You’re hurt.”

“It’s just a scratch. Are you sure you’re OK?” Allison asked. They kept their voices low as they crept up the slope. The train station they’d been in didn’t seem to connect easily to the outdoors. The two exits they’d found so far had been blocked by rubble, and they were now following ancient signage to what was hopefully another exit. The only light they had was from the glow globes that they’d hung at their hips.

“Why do you keep asking me that?” Ben was choking down some weird energy bar that Allison had stashed in her pockets. It tasted awful, but was miraculously appeasing Ben’s post-Them hunger pangs. 

“You don’t remember? What do you… What was the last thing you remember?” Allison asked. 

“Everyone turning back to their adult selves? Diego…” Ben trailed off with a cough. Had he really told Diego—

“Ben,” Allison said, very gently, “you asked me to kill you.” 

“…I don’t remember that,” Ben said, in a slightly strangled voice, “and thanks? For not?” 

“Don’t mention it. Um. Basically, when we popped out into this future, you got really sick and fell into a coma, so I thought I’d try and Rumour you into waking up. Only that woke all of Them up? But you controlled them. Pushed them back. When that knocked you unconscious again, Dad kidnapped both of us.”

“Woke all of Them…” Ben trailed off, cold sweat prickling down his back. He stopped walking, closing his eyes.

“Ben?”

“One moment.” Afraid of what he might find, Ben felt for the edges of the Gate _within_ , the impossible dimensional breach that was made of his heartbeat and blood and bones. He looked beyond it and They looked back. _All_ of Them. The light beyond dark was writhing with Them, with their seething hunger and teeth and skin. They did not whisper to him like they usually did, promising secrets, offering power. They were quiet. Waiting. They did not laugh.

Unsettled, Ben opened his eyes. Allison was standing close by, looking worried. “Are you okay?” 

“I think so?” Ben tried to smile, but the attempt slipped off his face. “Something’s different. About Them.”

“Different how?” Allison started to look panicky. “Oh God, this is all my fault. I shouldn’t have… I should’ve worded the Rumour better, I—”

“I don’t think it’s a bad sort of different,” Ben said, frowning. He’d called one of Them earlier and nothing seemed wrong right now. Nothing seemed wrong at all, and that was—

“But you’re not sure?” 

“Not really. Something’s…” Ben trailed off, frowning. “I don’t even know what’s different. Something is. Like something’s loosened. Before, if I summoned Them, I’d be able to feel the strain. It’d worsen if I kept calling them without a break. Now I don’t feel it.”

“Okay,” Allison said, clearly not understanding but trying to be supportive. “Just take it easy, okay? If you pass out again, I don’t think I can carry you.” 

“Sure I’ll take it easy,” Ben said, managing a weak smile. “I mean, it’s not like I have to do anything when I have such a kickass sister.” 

Allison let out a startled laugh. “Stop it. We’re here because I messed up.” 

“I kinda doubt that. And besides, if you did, you got us out of it.” Ben finished the energy bar and tossed the wrapper into a bin out of habit. Something rustled in the bin, making them both jump, but it was just a roach, scuttling quickly into the gloom. Ben started to walk, only to pause and stare at Allison’s frozen look. “Allison?”

“ _Jesus_ , that’s the biggest roach I’ve ever seen!” 

“You’re afraid of roaches? Come on, I don’t believe that. I’ve seen you walk into a room full of mafia thugs without batting an eye.”

“Mafia thugs don’t sprout wings and fly at you.” Allison shuddered, picking up her pace. “Urgh. Let’s get out of here.” 

The next exit they tried disgorged them up on the next floor, though not much further—the rest of the slope had crumbled away. The vast atrium was thick with rubbish that had to have blown or flooded in from street level. Ben nudged a red can with a foot. “Nice to see that the future still drinks Coca-cola.” 

“Why does trash still exist?” Allison said, as they picked their way through the dusty junk. “I’m kinda disappointed. I was hoping the future would less Blade Runner 2049 and more Big Hero 6.” She paused. “Oh, you wouldn’t have seen… sorry.”

“I watched Blade Runner. When we were kids. I stole Dad’s projector one night and reconnected it in the basement, borrowed the tape from the library. Watched it with Klaus and Diego, though Klaus fell asleep halfway.” Ben hesitated. “Wait, you mean. 2049? They remade it? Seriously? That had to be terrible.”

“Thanks much,” Allison said dryly. 

“You were in it? Okay, I take that back, it was probably great.” Ben frowned. “I don’t know how I missed that. When did it come out?” 

“October 2017. Klaus… he’d have been in rehab at the time. Some new retreat that I booked him into… well, I heard good things about it, was hoping it’d work.” Allison looked embarrassed. “I think he escaped after a month or so. Was it that bad?” 

“Oh, right, the forest place. It was pretty, but far from anything. No TV, lots of yoga. Klaus just got bored. Were you a replicant in the remake? Did you get to meet Harrison Ford? Was it a Ridley Scott film?”

“Yes, I was the main character, ‘K’. A replicant who kills replicants, working for the LAPD. I did get to meet Harrison, he reprised his role as Deckard. Yeah, Ridley was the director.” Allison grinned as Ben’s face lit up. “Wow, I never knew you were such a big fan.”

“I borrowed that tape so many times that the librarian gave it to me. Think Diego and I can actually quote half the movie back to each other. Klaus never made it through a full screening though. Did you talk to Harrison about Deckard being a replicant?” 

Allison sniffed. “He has so many opinions about it, for all that he pretends not to care.” 

Ben peppered Allison with questions as they found a way up—a partially collapsed section of the roof. Ben gave Allison a leg up. As she reached down to try and haul him up, she stiffened at the sound of footsteps. Ben backed away, ready to summon Them to pull himself up, to defend his sister— 

“Luther,” Allison said. She smiled. “I’m glad to see you. Did everyone get out OK?”

“Yeah, everyone’s fine,” Luther said. He looked down over at the gap, shadows making his face unreadable. “Hey, Ben.” 

“Hey. Give me a hand up, will you?” 

“Sure.” Luther flattened himself to the edge of the floor and reached down. He pulled Ben up with no apparent effort, and Allison helped to tug Ben up onto the ground. 

“Where are the others?” Allison asked as they got to their feet. “Did you see Dad? On your way in?” 

“Didn’t see anybody.” Luther’s jaw was set tight. “Everyone else has gone off on some wild idea of Klaus’. Something called the Hargreeves Manoeuvre. Diego went after them. I opted to stay and keep looking for you guys.” 

Hargreeves Manoeuvre? Ben tried to keep a completely blank face, but Allison stared at him briefly before looking back at Luther. “Five went too? I can’t really see Five going along with something like that.”

“I don’t know where Five is.” Luther scowled. “It’s just like him to disappear. Let’s go.” 

“Go where?” Ben asked. 

“Dad came here in an Indifference Engine, right? We should look for it,” Luther said.

“Okay, why?” Allison asked. 

“I think we should go after Klaus and the others,” Ben said. 

“They’re at least a day away now,” Luther said, with a dismissive gesture. “Let them do what they want, it doesn’t matter.” 

“It matters to me,” Ben said, as mildly as he could. 

“We should use the Indifference Engine to go back in time. We can fix things. Before it got to this stage. To… to us being stuck here, far out of our time, following some half-assed plan from a stranger that might end with all of us dying pointlessly or getting erased from existence,” Luther said, looking earnestly at Allison. “We can fix this.” 

“Back in time to when, exactly?” Allison said, folding her arms. “Because we already tried that, remember? Five took us back. Only for Father to figure out that something was wrong. Pogo called Abhijat over to save us.” 

“Later, then. To 2019. The few days before the Apocalypse. We could get Vanya to—”

“I’d rather not,” Ben interrupted, “seeing as at that point in that timeline I’d already been dead for over ten years.” 

“Right, true. We could go to before you, uh. Before that,” Luther said. 

“Except without the others coming with us, even if we go back, what can we do? Does that just duplicate us in the past? There’s a difference between the two types of time travel engines,” Ben said, “and I don’t think we should make this kind of decision without everyone else.” 

“You don’t have to come along,” Luther said, annoyed. “You can go after the others. I don’t know where they went, though.”

“Where’s the last place you saw them? Show me that,” Ben said, trying to be patient. He’d forgotten how irritating Luther could be.

“It’s a bit of a walk,” Luther said, still looking intently at Allison. 

“Dad’s time machine is functional? The Minerva wasn’t, when we got here,” Allison said. 

“Because Dad’s been here for a while. He jumped here right before the Wells invention’s time anomaly to wait for us…” Luther trailed off when Allison narrowed her eyes. “What?”

“How did you know that?” Ben asked quietly. 

“Isn’t it obvious?” Luther said. 

Allison scowled. “Luther, where’s the way out of here?” 

“If you head down that way you’d find a slope that’d lead outside,” Luther said, pointing. 

“Ben, could you head out first? I need to talk to Luther for a bit.” 

“Sure,” Ben said. He walked. On the next floor, Ben was briefly tempted to hide somewhere, just in case, but this was _Allison_. She’d never needed anyone’s protection. So he walked out into what turned out to be a late afternoon, shading his eyes against the sun. Nothing around him looked familiar.

“Not dead then,” Five said behind him.

Childhood had made Ben immune to this particular prank. “Hey Five,” Ben said, turning around. Five was lounging against the entrance to the station. Ben stared. “You’re still fifteen. I mean, your body.” 

“Please tell me that the weird trauma you suffered by traveling to this timeline hasn’t damaged your value as the only scintillating conversationalist in this family,” Five said. 

“I missed you too,” Ben said, amused. 

“Any reason why you’re wearing Allison’s coat?” 

“Black’s my colour. Any reason why you’re still wearing the uniform?” 

“It keeps me in a suitably grim frame of mind,” Five said. He peered behind him into the dark. “Allison and Luther?”

“Talking. Did you see where the others went?” At Five’s nod, Ben said, “Did Diego say anything… or Klaus…?”

“No. But I could guess what they might have decided to do. There aren’t that many possibilities, and I could see the direction they were heading in.” 

“I’m going after them.” Ben waited. When Five was silent, Ben said, “You should, too.” 

“I’ll pass. They’ll do fine without me, and there’s a threat that we haven’t adequately addressed.” Five offered Ben a tight smile. “Abhijat said our Father was effectively also a temporal assassin, a good one. Wonder whether he’s as good as me.”

“Dangerous prey.” 

Five chuckled, a little unkindly. “Besides, I think I’m the only one in this family who can actually pull the trigger on the old man when it counts. The rest of you are sentimental.” 

“Good luck,” Ben said. He wasn’t sure what else to say. 

“None of you really mean that.” Five smiled again and vanished. 

After a while, Allison walked back out of the building, her hands clenched tight. “Let’s go,” she said. 

“Luther?” 

“Never mind Luther,” Allison said flatly, and started striding down the street. Ben had to jog to catch up.

#

“Wait, if we kill or maim young Abhijat,” Klaus had whispered to them before they’d grudgingly surrendered, “does that mean old Abhijat will never exist, which means he never saves us the second time we’re kids, which means Dad will kill us in the past?”

“How is this my life?” Diego had said in response, at which point Vanya had walked out with her hands up and that had been the end of it. Now they were flying in the back of some military transport on their way into the City-Eternal, their hands solidly cuffed. Vanya looked completely untroubled—her eyes were closed as she lay back against the hull of the transport. Klaus just looked tired from where he was sitting opposite Diego, sandwiched between two soldiers. 

Abhijat just smiled from his corner, silent. At least they hadn’t caught the goddamned cat, wherever it was. There was a strange tremble to the air as the transport flew through the distortion and into the City-Eternal. Diego tried not to gawk. The City-Eternal was vast with an eye-watering sprawl that defied immediate rational explanation, a nightmarish cancer of gleaming glass and steel architecture that sat crouched within a gigantic shaft cored into the world. Now and then Diego would pick out a structure or two that looked vaguely familiar, skyscraper-like, but it would be growing out of another skyscraper, or flowing into a bridge. A few bridges linked the City-Eternal to the ruins of the Nowhere Zone, from the surface and deeper down the shaft, a silvery web that suspended the pupa of a city over the dark. 

Vanya opened her eyes at Klaus’ gasp, glanced out through the cockpit, and closed her eyes again. Diego frowned at her and looked over at Klaus to see if he’d noticed, but Klaus was still straining for a better look. “Wow,” Klaus said, craning his neck. “I’m starting to think I’m actually tripping out something amazing right now and all this is a wild Escher-themed hallucination.” 

“So the rest of you were tourists,” said younger!Abhijat from the cockpit. He’d been watching them. “Welcome to the Last City.” 

Abhijat sniffed. “Hardly the last.” 

“It’s a dramatic tagline, and we do love our drama,” younger!Abhijat said, completely unruffled. 

“You got a name?” Diego asked, because he was starting to get a headache. 

“I suspect you already know my name,” said younger!Abhijat with a knowing grin, “but for the sake of appearances, you may address me as Commander Singh.” 

“Don’t we get a lawyer?” Klaus said.

“What’s that?” Commander Singh said, looking puzzled. “You tourists from the Continent?” 

“I think you know what we are,” Abhijat said, with a warning glance at Klaus and Diego. Diego bit down his retort, leaning back against the hull. He was fairly sure that Vanya could get them out of here if she wanted to. And maybe this was a good thing. No running through contaminated areas trying to get through blast doors. Maybe. 

They landed on a steel tongue out over the sheer drop and were briskly marched past incurious soldiers. Diego thought they’d have been dumped into some sort of holding cell, and was surprised when they were instead uncuffed and shoved into what looked like a sparse apartment. Minus Abhijat, who was led off elsewhere. There was a couch with a screen, beds, and even an ensuite bathroom. The only thing that was cell-like about the room was the fact that the furniture was clearly bolted to the floor and there were no windows. And the door was locked. 

“Is this how jails are like in the future?” Klaus flung himself across the couch. “I like it. Comfy.” 

Diego prowled around the apartment even as Vanya curled up in an armchair. “We’re probably being watched,” Diego said. His knives had been confiscated on the way in, which never put him in the best of moods. 

“Let them have at it, I guess,” Klaus said, stretching. “Ooh, is there a shower in there?”

Diego glanced in the bathroom. There was one section that looked like a shower stall, with knobs along the wall, though he didn’t see any shower head. “Yeah, why?” 

“Dibs!” Klaus got up eagerly from the couch. 

“You want to have a shower? Now?” Diego scowled at him. 

“There is nothing wrong with personal hygiene,” Klaus said. He pursed his lips. “Vanya, are you OK over there?”

“Yep,” Vanya said, without opening her eyes. “You guys go ahead.” 

“You’re not fucking serious,” Diego said incredulously, when Klaus hooked his fingers into the leather harness and tugged. Klaus smirked, pulling him into the small bathroom and closing the door. “Pretty sure there’s a camera in here too,” Diego hissed, glancing up at the ceiling, “and our _sister_ is outside.” 

“Why, were we going to do anything wrong?” Klaus said, snickering. He backed Diego up against the corner of the wall, kissing him greedily on the mouth. 

“Jesus—Klaus. Really not the time.” 

“You think?” Klaus licked up his jaw to his ear and whispered, “Does something seem weird about Vanya to you?” 

Ah. Right. Diego tried to get his heart rate under control, even as Klaus rocked against him. He buried his mouth against Klaus’ throat. “Yeah.” 

“We need to snap her out of her blue eyeball mode,” Klaus murmured. His breath was ticklish against the shell of Diego’s ear. Diego squirmed and had to bite down on a groan when Klaus shoved one thigh between his legs. 

“ _Klaus_.” Klaus’ mouth twitched into an unrepentant grin at Diego’s neck. Well. Two could play at this. Diego pinched Klaus’ ass, and Klaus yelped as he ground against Diego’s hip. Diego kissed under his jaw, lowering his voice. “Blue Eyeball Mode? Really?” 

“Whatever, I’m not Five or Ben, I don’t have fancy names for my problems.”

“If it’s the mode she has to get into to focus…” Diego trailed off doubtfully. 

“I don’t know what she’s doing, but ‘focus’ doesn’t look like it.” 

True. “Any suggestions?” 

“She got this way because she’s worried about Allison and Ben, right? Maybe if we. Calm her down? Or something. As long as we don’t aggravate the situation,” Klaus said, even as there was a loud knock on the door. He pushed away from Diego with a show of reluctance. 

Back in the not!cell of a room, Vanya opened her eyes as a soldier walked in. “Cuffs on, all of you,” he said, glancing at Diego as he walked out from the bathroom. “Doctor Alexander wants a word.”


	11. Chapter 11

Klaus was hoping for a better look at the city, but they were frogmarched through several windowless corridors, through a steel lift, and into another room. The circular room was clinically white on all sides. They were shoved down at the long steel table in the centre with its bolted-down chairs, and their cuffs magnetised themselves firmly to the metal surface. They were left alone. 

After a while of shell-shocked silence, Klaus said, “So this is nice, isn’t it.” 

Diego tried yanking at his cuffs. Immovable. “I’ve been in interrogation rooms before. Just stay quiet, say as little as possible. Eventually, you’ll piss them off and they’ll leave.”

“I thought they’d separate us,” Klaus said vaguely, because thanks to Ben being a film nerd, he’d actually been exposed to various films involving cops now and then. 

“Doesn’t matter. This is fine,” Vanya said. She stared at her hands when Klaus and Diego looked at her. 

“…Sooo. This sort of looks like one of the sci-fi films Ben was always nagging me to catch,” Klaus said, as brightly as he could.

Diego stared at him in disbelief. “We’ve already done at least ten impossible things over the last few days and _this_ makes you think we’re in a sci-fi movie?” 

Vanya swallowed a soft giggle. Klaus looked at her hopefully. Nope. Blue Eyeball mode was still in effect. “You don’t look like you watch a lot of sci-fi films,” Klaus told Diego. 

“I actually like films in general, thank you. Ben and I used to watch a lot of films when we were kids. I still do. _You_ used to sleep.” 

“Oh right, before Dad found out why we kept sneaking off into the basement, broke the projector, and threw me into a crypt for a few days as punishment even though I hadn’t even been the main culprit. Fun times.” 

Diego sobered. “Yeah. About that. Klaus…”

“Don’t apologise, OK? It wasn’t your fault. You or Ben’s. We were only thirteen.” Klaus looked over his shoulder. “Anyway. The reason why this place is weird to me is. It’s empty.” 

“What’s so weird about that?” Diego asked. 

“He means there aren’t any ghosts,” Vanya guessed. 

“Yeah. Outside, the Nowhere Zone, it’s neck-deep with ghosts. So many that they overlap. Centuries of ghosts and a lot of more recent ones. Here? There’s nothing. It’s weird.” 

“How even is that possible?” Diego paused. “Maybe they all. Fall down the big hole? Beneath the city?”

Klaus stared at Diego. “What. That’s not how haunting works. That’s not how any of this works. Ghosts aren’t affected by gravity.”

“I was just—” Diego cut himself off as a door slid open in the apparently seamless wall in front of them. A woman walked briskly into the white room, dressed in a gray coat and elbow-length white gloves with iridescent grids down their backs. She had a head of thick golden curls and brilliant red lips and her face, her _face_ — 

Klaus was dimly aware that his mouth was hanging open. Vanya let out a tiny, high-pitched gasp. As the woman sat down at the table, Diego recovered first from their shock. “ _Mom_?” 

Mother looked sharply at Diego. “Excuse me?” 

No, this… this _wasn’t_ Grace Hargreeves, wasn’t the robot mother they had grown up with, wasn’t the one who had named them, picked up after them, kissed them goodnight, wasn’t— Now that Klaus was looking more closely, this stranger had freckles on her cheeks, a dimple, a slightly uneven chin that she lifted imperiously. Her mouth was a little less full, her eyes were narrower, harder and sharp. Her golden hair was cut near the same length, but worn in an unruly mass that looked indifferently combed. She was Mother, but imperfect. Mother, but human, and she was glorious. 

“But… but what…” Vanya trailed off. Klaus looked at her and was a little relieved to see that the Blue Eyeball Situation had resolved itself in Vanya’s shock. Silver linings. “But what are you doing here?”

“That’s not Mom,” Diego said. He pressed his forehead briefly to his cuffed hands, his shoulders shaking. “Look at her. She’s h-h-human. My God. What even the hell? Dad was way more m-messed up than I thought.” 

“I’m Doctor Alexander,” said Alexander, fixing them all with a steely stare, “and I think I deserve an explanation.” 

Diego kicked Klaus under the table when Klaus opened his mouth. He looked up, his jaw set. Even though Diego tried to hide it, there was disbelief and heartbreak in his eyes, and it hurt Klaus to see it. He wished he could get free of the cuffs. Put his arms around Diego. Leave the room and this woman who was not their mother and yet… and yet she was, in a way. She was clearly the prototype, even if she didn’t know it. God, their father was fucked up. 

“Where’s the guy we were brought in with?” Diego asked, wary. 

“In a separate facility,” Alexander said. She leaned forward. “All three of you act as though you know me, but I haven’t seen any of you before in my life.” 

“We were mistaken,” Diego said, though his jaw was clenched so tight that it had to ache.

“Were you?” Alexander countered. She drummed her fingertips on the table. “My time is extremely valuable, and I hate wasting it in any form. The three of you are here under my grace—” Alexander paused when Diego flinched, “—and while I couldn’t stop Commander Singh from whisking our fourth ‘guest’ away, I could at least wrangle this meeting out of the three of you.”

“Is it really common for scientists to wrangle meetings with prisoners from the military?” Klaus asked, because he hadn’t been in the military for very long, but it’d been long enough to absorb the us-versus-them culture that the Army tended to exude. 

Alexander smiled sharply. “Probably not, but I’m hardly common. It’s possible, in fact, that I’m uncommon enough to help you—before the three of you also get whisked off into the military ether, never to be seen again—but first I’ll have to care. Let me start. The four of you are clearly time travelers. Yes?” 

“Really?” Diego said, raising an eyebrow. “Time travel?” 

Alexander huffed. “You’re an awful liar. Even if you weren’t, not a lot of people still speak English, let alone fluently. The military does, and some of the rest of us who study ancient technology do, but most of the population speaks Sinolese. That aside, on the scans, the three of you haven’t been immunised for any of the major modern diseases, but none of you look like you grew up in the Nowhere Zone. And the style of your clothes, the fabrics that went into it… I could go on, but it’s tedious. So.”

“Okay, fine,” Klaus said, ignoring Diego’s nudge under the table. “It’s a very long story, and I might need to pee at some stage.” 

“Start talking then, or you’ll just have to wet yourself,” Alexander said, unimpressed.

“You are really not like Mom at all,” Klaus said, after a startled pause. “Which, come to think of it, is actually even more fucked up. Wow.” 

“We’re not talking,” Diego said, with a warning glance at Klaus. “Do your worst.”

“I’m going to,” Vanya said. At Diego’s glare, she closed her eyes, taking in a slow breath. The air around her seemed to ripple for a split second, then with a low grinding sound, the cuffs around her hands shattered. Alexander jerked up to her feet in surprise, but Vanya didn’t get up. Not even when doors opened all around them and guards charged into the room. “Do you want me to start talking or not?” Vanya asked calmly. “It’s crowded now.” 

Slowly, Alexander sat back down. “Everyone, get out,” she said. When one of the soldiers started to speak, she barked “ _Now_ ,” and followed it with a word in a language Klaus didn’t understand. The soldiers filed out, leaving them alone again. “Interesting trick,” Alexander said, with a nod at Vanya’s hands. “Can’t be hidden tech, you were scanned on the way here.”

“It’s not tech. It’s me. Can you let my brothers go too?” 

“Brothers?” Alexander glanced at Diego and Klaus with mild surprise, then she smiled sharply. “Why not.” She raised her voice, saying something in the strange language. The cuffs on Diego’s and Klaus’ hands disengaged, falling neatly into two on the table. “Now that we’re all done posturing, are you going to talk?” Alexander asked, not in the least afraid, even though she should be, when faced with someone like Vanya. 

What the hell. Klaus respected ballbreakers of any stripe. “You want us to start from the beginning? How far in the beginning?” 

“Wherever you want. I’ll let you know if it’s irrelevant,” Alexander said. 

“My name is Vanya Hargreeves,” Vanya said. Alexander went still, straightening up. Vanya stared at her evenly. “These are my brothers, Diego and Klaus Hargreeves. There are seven of us, and if our father had his way there would’ve been more. In 1989, 43 children were born at the same time, to mothers who weren’t pregnant until the moment they started giving birth.”

Klaus coughed. “Which, now that I think about it, must have been really traumatic for everyone involved—”

“No need for any social commentary,” Alexander cut in, though she looked troubled. “And hurry it up.”

#

“We probably still needed him,” Ben said, after they stashed the unconscious soldier in a public bathroom cubicle and locked the door.

“Maybe,” Allison said. They’d chanced on a patrol out in the Nowhere Zone talking in an argot that was partly English and had overheard them saying that they’d brought four ‘tourists’ in for ‘processing’. After taking out three of the soldiers, Allison had used Rumours on the fourth to figure out that yes, Klaus and the others had gotten caught. No big surprise there really, her brothers were hopeless. They’d been taken to the City-Eternal.

“English doesn’t seem to be the main language anymore,” Ben said, “and they’re not speaking any Chinese dialect that I’ve heard of before.” 

“I know.” Allison didn’t really like wearing the full-face helmet—its interface had a complex projected UI over her vision that had made her dizzy at first. Only one section was really important—an overlay of blinking orange arrows on the ground, directing them toward where their siblings were being held. “But that nice Captain Wong helpfully installed this… wayfinding thing… on our ‘visual feeds’ and our passes work with the doors we’ve tried so far, so I think we’ll be fine.” Or so she hoped. 

“True,” Ben said. They tried to keep away from the main thoroughfares. The interior of the Escher-esque city was surprisingly beautiful—in this section, anyway. Lots of soaring white walkways against walls verdant with ferns and flowers, boulevards bisected by rivers where flickering fish dodged glowing spheres nestled between lilies. The ceiling was a hyperreal visual of the skyline of some distant planet, one with two moons. 

There weren’t as many people as Allison thought there would be. She peered down past glass safety walls into a large thoroughfare far below, thick with flying transports large and small, some only as large as a car. Further past the thoroughfare was an interlinked maze of urban architecture, growing outward from each section like a hollowed out pinecone. 

“Wow,” Allison said. 

“Like in the movies?” Allison couldn’t see Ben’s face through the helm, but she could hear the hushed awe in his voice. 

“Hardly. In a movie, a set like this would be all tacked up blue screens. I’d only see the special effects at the premiere. This is amazing.” 

“Whenever I watched a sci-fi film, I used to imagine what I’d do if I was living in it. The things I’d ask, the things I’d go and see. Now that I’m actually here… it’s just all. Kind of overwhelming,” Ben said. He sounded distracted. Breathless. Was he afraid? Freaking out? Disoriented? 

“I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe,” Allison quoted from the Blade Runner film, which she’d watched for research purposes. “Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion.”

As she hoped, Ben laughed and turned away from the view. “All those moments will be lost in time… Point taken.” 

Dodging patrols got harder once the blinking arrows led them out of the garden section and into a dense maze of security doors and stark silver corridors. This section looked military by design. Allison could recognise the mood, even filtered through the uncanny lens of Hollywood. Barracks, mess halls, exercise zones, firing ranges. They tried to stay out of sight at first, but when Ben ducked into a room at the sound of oncoming footsteps, bumped straight into a soldier who was on their way out and got no more than a “Watch where you’re going, Corporal,” they cautiously relaxed. 

“I get it,” Ben said, as they followed the arrows to a gentle slope that wound downwards. “You’re trying not to use your powers.” 

Allison glanced at Ben on habit, but couldn’t see past the helmet. Captain Wong had helped them route their radio to a private two-way between just Allison and Ben. Having Ben’s voice right in her ear reminded Allison of filming. She’d never had to have lines fed to her through an earpiece, but she’d worked with a lot of actors who did. “I just used them. On those soldiers.” 

“You used to be a lot more free with them. When we were kids.” 

“Yeah,” Allison said uncomfortably. She’d used Rumours on her own siblings when they’d been growing up. Not just Vanya. Small things, like getting her siblings to fetch things for her, or leave her the last jam donut. “I’m sorry.” 

“We knew what you were doing. We didn’t mind,” Ben said. He patted Allison on her shoulder. Allison smiled, suffused with sudden warmth. That was the thing about family, messed up as theirs was. They’d been brought up to have no one but each other. Even after everything that they’d done to each other, after all the things that had been done to them, Allison was glad, in many ways, to have grown up the way she had. 

“Dad was right,” Allison said, looking away. “That’s why I’ve been trying to get out of the habit of using Rumours. Using my powers… not having self-control and just using them freely? It wasn’t good. I lost my husband, lost my daughter. Nearly lost you, too.” 

Ben was quiet as they walked down the slope to the next level. The arrows kept pointing down, so they ignored the large door. “You’re aware of your mistakes, and you’re driven to make them right. That’s something.” 

“Better late than never, I guess.”

“Allison…” Ben trailed off, then said in a softer voice, “What did you say to Luther? If you don’t mind me asking.” 

“I didn’t use my powers on him.”

“Didn’t say you did.”

Allison blew out a sigh. “I just. I guess I just said things that were a long time in coming. I told him. I know how he feels, hell, everyone knows. And. I love him too. I have for a while. But I don’t love him enough to just abandon the rest of you. I don’t think I’ve ever loved anyone else enough to do that. Not even. Not even Claire. That’s why I didn’t just get on the first flight back to her when things were getting so bad. It’s why I stayed. I stayed for all of you. So I told Luther where I stood. And told him to get out of my way if he wasn’t going to help us.”

“I see,” Ben said. He glanced at Allison. “That… must have been hard. For you.” 

“Maybe. I’m kinda glad he didn’t follow us. I could guess what the Hargreeves Manoeuvre is, by the way. I saw the look Klaus shot Dad when we had to bury you. Like he didn’t just wish Dad was dead—he wished he could erase everything that Dad was if he could. Until I saw it, I didn't think Klaus could hate like that.”

“He didn’t. Not until I died.” Ben sounded sad. “I wish he didn’t have to learn.” 

“I asked Luther to help us. To at least help us find Vanya and the others. I said if he disagreed with what they were doing we should just hold it to a vote.” Allison clenched her hands tightly. “He said he didn’t care about that. That he felt they were doing the wrong thing, whether they knew it or not. That we were trained to stop the apocalypse, to do good, and if Vanya messed with the timeline like this, or did anything significant, it could destroy everything. Or just obliterate us from existence.” 

“It’s all possible,” Ben said, after a long pause. 

“But you and Five are still here.”

“I am. Five’s focused on other things.” 

“Killing Dad. The one from the past,” Allison said. Ben nodded slowly. Allison blew out a sigh. “I don’t know what’s… I don’t know about any of this. I’m not smart like you or Five. But I think. Abhijat’s right. People being able to mess with time like this is wrong. Maybe without time travel, an apocalypse will happen anyway, because people are shits. With time travel, it does still happen. I think if the world’s going to end anyway, at least let it be on everyone’s terms. Not just those of some assholes with briefcases and funny machines.” 

“Yeah,” Ben said. He reached over, and Allison squeezed his hand. “That’s what I think.” 

“Also, call me petty, but if I can wreck what looks like the biggest achievement of Dad’s life, I want to do that,” Allison said. She smiled a hard little smile. 

Ben laughed. “That too.” 

The arrow led them down a few levels to a door that didn’t recognise the authorisation codes on their bracers. “Now what?” Allison said. 

“They don’t look that far past this point according to the map,” Ben said doubtfully. “I guess it depends on how much of a jailbreak you want to…” He trailed off.

“Ben?” 

He was looking up at a small vent near the roof, that was maybe big enough for a child. “Hm. I have an idea. I’m going to try something. Don’t get too close to me, ok?” 

“You can’t fit there… Oh. Right. I’ll keep an eye out,” Allison said, positioning herself further up the slope. Ben nodded and leaned against the wall. The air above his stomach distorted. Something that looked uncomfortably like a smaller, snakelike version of Giger’s alien xenomorphs slithered out, all teeth, no eyes, its skin a hideous gleaming pattern of tendons and whorls. It swarmed up onto the wall with unnatural ease. Allison looked away. The sound of soft chittering got to the vent, which was shoved away with a clang. 

Allison counted to ten, then counted to ten again. She kept sneaking glances at Ben, who looked unresponsive against the wall. She wasn’t sure how long they waited. No traffic up or down the slope—this was probably an emergency access. When her feet were starting to ache in her stolen boots, Ben abruptly straightened up, startling Allison into flinching. 

The sliding doors opened. Just beyond, the snake-creature dropped the severed arm it was holding, chittering with delight as Ben stepped through. It curled up Ben’s arm and slung itself over his shoulders like a grotesque scarf.

“Sorry,” Ben said. He sounded nervous. “I wish you didn’t have to see that, but. We might still need Them.”

“Hey, we got in, right? Great job.” Allison tried not to stare at the arm. She walked through the door, which closed behind her. Tried not to look at the blood and the still-smoking marks on the walls from gunfire of some sort. God, all the blood. The helmet didn’t filter out the stink. 

The arrows led them past the guard post and into the corridor beyond, which was already open. A guard in the control centre beside it was lying face down on the consoles, the pristine floor and desks sticky with blood. Like all the other guards, they’d been beheaded. Allison made herself go into the control room, to strip the bracer off the dead man’s arm. 

Ben’s snake-creature chuckled to itself as they walked through to a line of holding cells, the mildew-rot scent from it drowning out the astringent smell that came from the empty cells. They followed the arrows past each steel door to the last cell. It opened when Allison held the bracer she’d taken to it, swinging wide to reveal its sole occupant. 

“Oh. It’s you. Fuck,” Allison said. 

Abhijat looked up from where he was lounging on his bunk and grinned. “About time.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ben’s actor Justin H Min returned to Twitter recently (plz follow him! @justinhmin) and told a fan that Ben didn’t die as a kid but years later, which is why he looks older (he didn’t age as a ghost). This has kinda opened up a few plot holes in my fic but welp. I’m not going to correct it. I was under the impression Ben died as a kid in the show because the statue in the garden was that of a kid, while in the comics Ben’s statue is that of an adult. /handwave /AU
> 
> Also, David (Diego Hargreeves) posted this today, you're all welcome, the God(dess) of fandom is kind (Hint: Click through until you get to see the full pic for The Piercing)
>
>> Full disclosure. They painted in my abs. [@UmbrellaAcad](https://twitter.com/UmbrellaAcad?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw) [pic.twitter.com/M1cWnsrTbu](https://t.co/M1cWnsrTbu)
>> 
>> — David Castañeda (@DavidCastanedaJ) [February 28, 2019](https://twitter.com/DavidCastanedaJ/status/1100937967730741248?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Warning** : This chapter changes the overall rating of the fic to E. Don't like, don't read.

Diego had been drifting off to sleep when the door to their rooms burst in, the room growing crowded with soldiers. “Up,” someone barked, “get up! You’re all being moved. Commander Singh’s orders.” 

“Fhwhat?” Klaus mumbled from his bed. He yelped as soldiers dragged him off the bed and onto his feet. 

“Hey!” Diego lunged over and slugged one of them. “Get your hands off him.” He froze at the sound of whirring from the rifles trained on them at the door, like machines starting up. 

“Let’s go,” Vanya said. She rubbed her eyes and got up from the bed, running a hand through her rumpled hair. At least the soldiers didn’t bother with cuffs and didn’t try shoving them along as they were marched out of the door. 

“What happened?” Klaus asked, still stifling yawns, but the soldiers chivvying them on didn’t answer. They piled into a large lift, the three of them in the centre and soldiers surrounding them. This was bad. Whatever had happened, the soldiers looked twitchy. If there was a shootout in the lift, everyone was going to die. 

The lift jarred to a sudden stop that made everyone stumble and curse. Diego took a step back, ready to grab his siblings, try to cover them with his body for whatever meagre help that might be. As the soldiers glanced at each other, they all went still, as though listening to something on the radio. As one, they collapsed back against the wall, their breaths evening into sleep.

Diego bent and grabbed a boot knife from the closest soldier, even as Klaus gingerly picked up a rifle. As the lift door groaned and squealed, Vanya stepped before them both, her hands clenched, her gaze intent. The doors shuddered. A wedge of light drew down the seam as they were slowly forced apart—by tentacles. 

“Ben?” Klaus called, joyous. 

“Stand back.” Ben’s voice drifted down from outside. The doors were forced wider. The lift was caught in between levels. Diego pushed Vanya towards the doorway, lifting her up to the floor. He gave Klaus a leg up next, then hands were reaching down for him, pulling him up. The moment he was dragged onto the ground, the lift doors slammed shut, and it whistled away, heading down into the void. 

Ben sagged against the wall, pulling off his helmet. He was dressed like one of the soldiers, as was Allison, who tugged her helmet off, grinning as she hugged Vanya tightly. Diego looked past Allison to Abhijat with a scowl. “What the hell is he doing here?”

“We rescued the wrong person on our first attempt. Don’t ask,” Ben said. He smiled as Klaus drew him into a tight embrace, hugging him back, slapping Klaus’ shoulders. 

“I’m starting to feel under-appreciated,” Abhijat said. He kept glancing down the narrow, dim corridor they were on. “Come on. We can’t stay here. Lots of security sensors.” 

“Why are we going anywhere with him? He tried to kill you,” Diego told Ben as he got to his feet. “Also. Something really fucking creepy happened to us, I don’t even know how to explain it. We should… when we catch our breath, we should have a family meeting. Dad was even more messed up than we thought. We met someone who… well. We met someone.”

“What?” Allison said. 

“You met Doctor Alexander, who looks like your ‘mother’. Reginald modeled a medical AI robot’s body on his colleague and—at this point in time—future wife, and gave it to the lot of you as a caretaker,” Abhijat said impatiently. At Diego’s stare, he said, “I made an educated guess on the facts. I met ‘her’ a while ago. Gave me a shock too, given that Doctor Alexander and I used to be acquaintances. Can we go now? This isn’t a great place to have an emotional breakdown.”

“…I really want to feed you your intestines,” Diego said, rubbing a hand slowly over his face. 

“Later,” Abhijat said, starting to hurry down the dim corridor. Allison grabbed his arm. “Miss Allison. I’m not joking. This place isn’t secure.”

“I’m struggling to… wait. I thought you ran away from all this,” Allison said, suspicious. “When you talked to Dad and then stole the Minerva.” 

“I did. I also came in contact with him—and the Academy—every so often over the years. We weren’t always enemies. The last time we parted, I think all of you were around four years old or so. That’s when I saw the robot. I was there to give him a friendly warning,” Abhijat said. 

“What warning?” Klaus said. 

“That on my last set of calculations, he would not be able to live past 2019 on any set of probabilities. I thought he might like to know. As a last gesture of good faith between adversaries.”

“Is that why he killed himself?” Ben said, frowning. “I always thought the logic behind that was weird. There wasn’t any real point to it. He could have made all of you go home if he really wanted to. He’s a billionaire. Or he could just have said Pogo was sick. Something like that. What was the point of setting up a murder mystery days before the Apocalypse when he could’ve just saved some time by telling us the problem?” 

“I regret telling him about his impending death,” Abhijat admitted, looking around at the ceiling tensely. “I think it might have made him more irrational. Over the years. Now. Can we go?” 

“Where?” Diego asked, but Allison was waving them on. 

“Let’s get a move on. Talk later,” Allison said.

#

“Found this during the war to come,” Abhijat said, as he unsealed the dusty door by tapping a code into a panel beside it. “The City-Eternal’s constantly building downwards as well as redeveloping existing space. The deeper down you are, the less you have to spend on energy for cooling. Few years back some redevelopments were snarled up in some permit tangles and a bunch of places like this were left empty.”

Ben followed Diego through into the dusty gloom. Dull gray light flickered on from overhead bars as they walked in. There was a persistent if faint sour smell to the stale air. The cubical floor they stood on was empty, with rubbish stacked up against a disused lift. A slope led up to an upper floor and a lower one. The wall to his left flickered to life as Klaus wandered near it, projecting a neat list of glyphs, all with a stamp of red glyphs beside them. 

“Names,” Abhijat said, as Klaus flinched away. “Previous tenants of this place. All of them evicted or relocated. I’m going to find some food and supplies. The rest of you should get comfortable.”

“I’m going with you,” Allison said firmly. 

“And me,” said Vanya.

“Sure,” Abhijat said, unconcerned.

“You sure that’s a good idea?” Diego asked Allison. 

“If it isn’t,” Allison said, patting Abhijat on the shoulder, “I’ll make his head explode.” 

“We’re going to get along famously,” Abhijat said lightly. As the girls followed him out of the door, which sealed itself between them, Ben stood awkwardly in the silence, unsure of what to say. Diego was giving him a look that he couldn’t really parse. 

“We should search the area,” Diego said, heading for the lower slope. “You two take upstairs. Yell if anything.”

“Right,” Ben said. He headed up the slope, Klaus on his heels. There wasn’t much to check. There were four doors per floor, two floors, and all the doors were locked tight. At the top floor, Ben glanced back at Klaus. “You’re being weirdly quiet.” 

Klaus coughed. “Uh, well. A lot happened.”

“Yeah. Allison said I kinda lost control and nearly killed everyone.” 

Klaus frowned. “She said you nearly killed everyone?”

“Not that bit. But she said she accidentally woke all of Them up. Somehow I passed out instead of setting off the Apocalypse. Then we got kidnapped by Dad and stashed underground. Allison freed us, we ran into some soldiers and stole their clothes, freed Abhijat by accident, he hacked into the military comms, heard you guys were getting moved, and here we are.” 

“My turn,” Klaus said, scratching his head. “Uh. Dad’s trying to kill you, me, and Vanya, apparently. When he kidnapped you and Allison, Vanya thought we might as well come here and kill his younger self. And destroy the time travel lab. Except we got caught, or surrendered on purpose, then. We met Doctor Alexander—seriously creepy experience, I can tell you—and spilled the beans—”

“Really,” Ben said. 

Klaus flapped a hand dismissively. “Psssh, what harm can it do. After we told her everything she stormed off and we were dumped back in detention, then you guys found us when we got moved. Now we’re both caught up.” 

“Okay.” Ben leaned against one of the sealed doors and folded his arms. “Any reason why you’re looking at me like I’m going to explode? I’ve got Them under control.” 

“It’s not that.” Klaus picked at the hem of his vest. “I’ve had a long day.”

“Klaus.” 

“Fine, fine. Hypothetically speaking… the last time you said you’d kill me over something… did you really mean it…?” 

“Of course n… Wait. _Wait_. Klaus. You didn’t. You told Diego that I…?” At Klaus’ cautious nod, Ben rubbed a hand over his face. He _had_ thought Diego seemed agitated, but had assumed it was because of Doctor Alexander. “For fuck’s sake. I left you alone for less than a week!” 

“I know, I know,” Klaus said, putting his palms up placatingly, “it just spilled out?” 

“How does something like that just spill out?” 

“I know you’re mad, but—”

“I’m not mad,” Ben said wearily, because it was actually difficult to get mad at Klaus. Stockholm syndrome, maybe. “I don’t even. _Klaus_.” 

“Diego wasn’t mad either. Think he was flattered. Anyway,” Klaus said, taking in a deep breath, “just so you know, he and I, kind of have a thing, like Allison and Luther but not creepy—er, at least less creepy—and, I was thinking, I know you really like Diego and I’m not your type but we could—”

“Wait, wait, wait.” Ben massaged his temple. “There’s way too much to unpack here.” 

“Okay.” Klaus looked visibly nervous. That was… strange. Ben didn’t remember the last time Klaus looked this discomfited. Klaus usually fit into anywhere he was like a cat, a louche Lord of everything he touched, beautiful and well-aware that he was beautiful. 

Ben wanted to start by nudging out exactly what Klaus said to Diego, but the words that came out of his mouth were, “What makes you think you’re not my type?” 

Klaus stared at him, surprised. “You’ve never said anything before. All these years when you were haunting me. I never even got that vibe from you. And I know you like looking at guys who look like they live in a gym, or like Diego, literally live in a gym while looking like he lives in a gym—”

“I was a ghost! When you’re a ghost you don’t feel sexual desire. Only basic driving sentiments. I was keeping an eye on people like that because they’d be able to seriously hurt you if you pissed them off. Which you often did. I don’t even.” Ben stifled a laugh. “Only you, Klaus.”

“Only me what?”

“The fact that you didn’t even realize. You’re my best friend. I mean, I didn’t have any choice in that, but I’m glad in a way that I didn’t. You’re really important to me. Growing up, I didn’t want to ruin all that…” Ben trailed off at Klaus’ blank stare. “Means I love you too, you jackass.” 

Klaus let out a thin breath and crowded Ben against the wall. He was grinning as he closed in, his grin brilliant with joy and relief. Kissing was… nice, Ben decided. The first kiss with Diego didn’t really count. Klaus’ mouth was soft, and when he licked against Ben’s lips Ben wasn’t really sure what to do. When Ben had been a ghost he’d seen Klaus kiss before, kiss other people, but he usually drifted off quickly to give his brother some privacy. 

“You all right?” Klaus asked, hushed, when he pulled back. He looked worried. 

Oh. “Was it that bad?” 

“No…” Klaus trailed off. “Oh. That’s right. You haven’t… you haven’t exactly done this before. Other than that one time with Diego, but you were glowing and stuff.” 

“And stuff,” Ben said, dry as dust as he caught Klaus’ chin and pulled him back in. He tried to move his mouth against Klaus’, the way he’d seen Klaus do, and Klaus melted against him, stroking his palms up Ben’s arms. It was surprisingly wet and messy. It was surprisingly _good_. Klaus’ beard and stubble didn’t feel as strange as Ben thought it would. They kissed until Ben felt like he was starting to get the hang of it. He wasn’t really sure what to do with his hands at first, clutching at Klaus’ vest, tickling fingertips against his throat. 

Klaus made a hushed and strangled sound. He flinched when Diego cleared his throat behind them. Ben nearly didn’t dare to look, but as far as he could tell, Diego looked amused, leaning against the wall of the slope down. “We’re meant to be securing the area,” he said. His gaze flicked briefly down to their mouths. 

“And we have. All clear,” Klaus said, grinning and unrepentant. 

“Hopeless,” Diego told Klaus. He walked over, as graceful and as soft-footed as a cat, his lazy smile effortlessly handsome. “Do I get a turn?” 

“Why not,” Ben said, too breathless to even pretend at insouciance. Diego was a far more demanding kisser. He licked into Ben’s mouth, pulling Ben tightly against his solid frame, and God above, he had to be all hard muscle. Ben scratched blunt nails against Diego’s back, clumsily trying to kiss him back, sloppy and wet and loud. He was flushed and wide-eyed when they drew back for air.

“Show off,” Klaus said, pressing close. He pressed a playful peck against Diego’s nose that made Diego snort and brush a kiss on his mouth. 

“Wow,” Ben whispered, staring unabashedly. He wanted to remember this forever, the two most beautiful and important people in his life entwined against him, all three of them inextricably enmeshed. He kissed Diego’s throat, mouthing against the pulse and breathing him in. Diego’s arm tightened around Ben’s waist as he stifled a small moan against Klaus’ mouth. He swiped something against the door Ben was pressed against and it slid open with a low hum. Ben stumbled, but Diego righted him and hustled them through.

“Nice trick,” Klaus said, with a nod at the silver square in Diego’s palm. 

Diego tossed it to a shelf beside the door. “Found it on one of the lower floors of this place with abandoned junk that looks like cleaning equipment. Seemed to open all the doors.” 

The room beyond had been someone’s apartment at some point. It’d been left neat and tidy despite its abandonment, and the air wasn’t as stale inside, likely recycled from some hidden ventilation. Wasn’t as dusty as Ben thought it’d be. There were some sad reminders that this had been someone’s home once—a small long-dead potted plant sat on a desk, and there were colourful boxes under the bed at the end, a half-open wardrobe of clothes. Ben didn’t get a better look than that—Diego was tumbling him onto the bed, flashing a devilish grin as he climbed on top. Ben pulled him down eagerly for a kiss, wrapping his arms over Diego’s powerfully built shoulders. He was vaguely aware of Klaus navigating the catches on Diego’s harness, tugging impatiently until Diego reared back to help him strip it off. The black turtleneck was next.

“…What?” Diego said, into the stunned silence that followed. 

“Ben,” Klaus said, in a slightly strangled tone, “I will never criticise you and your taste for gym guys again.” 

“I told you I don’t have a…” Ben trailed off. _There is a God_ , his awed brain kept supplying. _A God_. An ugly scar was stitched high over the bicep on Diego’s left arm, and there were other scars scoured over Diego’s skin, but he was… Perfect felt like an inadequate word. And that silver ring, pierced through his left nipple. Ben’s eyes kept getting drawn to it. “Wow,” Ben said. Even that was inadequate.

Diego was smirking now, so very smug. “What?” he said again, in a lower, husky voice. “See something you like?” He laughed as Klaus growled and pounced on him, shoving Diego flat on the bed as Ben scrambled up on his knees, kicking off his shoes. Diego dragged Ben up to kiss him, rougher now, his teeth catching on Ben’s lip. Diego gasped and twitched as Klaus squeezed the bulge tenting his leather pants, spreading his thighs greedily as Klaus undid his belt and worked down the zipper. 

“Our sisters could be back at any moment,” Ben said, feeling obliged to at least offer a token attempt at decorum. 

“That’s what closed doors are for,” Klaus said, grinning up at Ben cheekily as he pressed a kiss over Diego’s boxers, making Diego growl and curl his fingers into Klaus’ hair. “How about a practical lesson in sucking cock? From one of the best, if I could say so myself.” 

Laughter shook out of Ben as he buried his mouth against Diego’s shoulder. “Modesty much?”

“It’s the truth,” Klaus said archly.

“Ben, I can only imagine all the things you’ve suffered, having to haunt this guy all this time,” Diego said, though his voice hitched as Klaus drew his cock out from his boxers. Diego was big, his shaft fat and a little curved. Klaus whistled. He gave the uncut tip a sloppy kiss. Grinning slyly up at Diego, Klaus curled his tongue over the thickened head, then grasped Diego to hold him still and tucked his tongue under the foreskin. 

“ _Jesus_ ,” Diego yelped, his hips jerking. Klaus pulled back with a laugh. 

“Bit of help here, Ben. Hold him down.” 

Ben obligingly slung a leg over Diego’s thigh, pinning him even as Klaus’ grasped Diego’s hips and bent back down. Ben leaned up on his elbows to watch as Klaus licked down from the tip, and back up, slow and deliberate and deliciously sexy. Ben could feel his own cock pressing eagerly against Diego’s flank, and as he ground against all that muscle Diego growled and pulled him into a kiss with one hand, the other groping for Ben’s belt. 

“You guys should watch this bit,” Klaus said, utterly shameless, smirking once he was sure he had their attention. Leaning up on his elbows, he took Diego into his mouth, his plush lips stretching over the slick flesh as he drank Diego in, inch by inch until Ben was sure that Klaus couldn’t possibly take any more, until Diego was making desperate strangled groans, his hips jerking against Klaus’ grip and Ben’s leg. Diego gave up trying to fumble past Ben’s belt, his hands clenching tight in Ben’s stolen military jacket. When Klaus somehow fit everything down his throat, Diego moaned, a broken hoarse sound of pleasure. 

“Shit,” Diego gasped, then, pitched higher, “ _Shit_ ,” as Ben mouthed kisses against his throat, his jaw, further, to lick a stripe along the long scar that ran across the side of his head. Klaus’ shoulders shook in silent laughter. He pulled back up nearly to the tip, loud and wet, and went back down again. Diego cursed, his words breaking into his stutter. Ben nipped down his collar as Diego frowned, angling up for a kiss, but when Klaus started to suck with loud and sloppy enthusiasm Diego bit down on Ben’s lower lip in shock. 

Ben yelped, jerking back, then laughed as Klaus pulled back to check on him and Diego begged, “Please, please d-don’t stop.” 

“That’s got to sting,” Klaus said, his voice a little hoarse. He grinned as Ben shrugged and shifted down to kiss him, to taste Diego on Klaus’ tongue until Diego went quiet, his breaths shallow and tight with want. Ben kissed him as Klaus bent back down, Diego licking apologetically against Ben’s mauled lip. He was tense, trembling as Klaus started to suck, letting out a soft hungry sound as Ben kissed down his chest to the pierced nipple. 

“Careful with that,” Diego said, and hissed as Ben gave it an experimental lick, metal and all. 

“When did you even get this?” Ben asked. He sealed his mouth over the nipple and ring and sucked lightly when Diego didn’t answer. Diego wailed, jerking against them both. 

“Fuck! After… after the p-police, I…” the rest of his words broke into a hoarse yowl as Ben grazed his teeth lightly over the nipple. Klaus made a choked sound of surprise. Ben pulled up instinctively, just in time to see Klaus’s throat working as he swallowed down what he got.

“Mother of God,” Diego whispered, wide-eyed and trying to catch his breath. “The two of you. Are going to kill me.” 

“Aww, but we’ve only just started,” Klaus said smugly and laughed as Diego huffed and hauled him up for a kiss.


	13. Chapter 13

“Why is stuff just free?” Vanya said, as they carried the bags back toward their hideout. “We just showed up at that, uh, Resource Centre, and. They didn’t even ask us for ID or anything.”

“I keep forgetting that you people are from the Dark Ages,” Abhijat said. The Resource Centre had been in a crowded pocket of the city, sandwiched between trains and other administrative buildings. Most people in the area looked like civilians, all of them dressed in the same drab gray or blue shirts and pants. “Back when fossil fuels were burnt for energy, when kids could starve in wealthy cities, when hah, this entire section of the world didn’t even have affordable healthcare—“

“Yes, life was terrible, and?” Allison said. 

“Capitalism’s a particularly destructive way to exist,” Abhijat said, “which was obvious around when the world’s ecosystems collapsed, the climate tanked, large swathes of the world became uninhabitable and all that. The City-Eternal makes living supplies available as a basic right. Food, water, clothing, shelter, all that. Anything else, you barter.”

“A barter system? Really?” Vanya looked over her shoulder. “I didn’t see that.” 

“Not goods for goods generally, no. You barter time. That’s the best way I can explain it.” 

Allison frowned. “Wait, there was a film like this. With Justin Timberlake. Everyone was born with a set amount of time and you paid for food with minutes and—”

Abhijat laughed. “No, no.” He tried to explain the system as they made their way back to the abandoned sectors, but Allison and Vanya were still confused by the time Abhijat let them into their hideout. Her brothers were nowhere to be seen. 

“They’ve probably found a way into the rooms,” Allison said. Trust those boys to do the minimum possible. 

“I’ll just take a quick look.” Vanya headed up the slope as Allison helped Abhijat sort their supplies on the cleanest part of the floor. 

As they were piling energy bars into stacks there was a loud yelp from Vanya above, followed with a yell of “ _Jesus_ , woman, it’s been over ten years, haven’t you learned how to knock?” from Diego. Vanya quickly reappeared down the slope, bright red. “I didn’t see anything,” she said, crabbing over to Allison to help out. 

“Diego and Klaus?” Allison guessed.

“And Ben,” Vanya mumbled. Abhijat raised both his eyebrows but didn’t say anything. 

By the time they’d sorted the rest of the supplies into bags, Ben ambled down the slope, looking sheepish and disheveled. “Sorry about that,” he told Vanya. He tossed a silver square to Allison. “That should get you into the other rooms. Diego found it.” 

“Clothes changes for you guys,” Allison said, gesturing at the bags lined up closest to Ben and grinning mischievously. “I estimated. Should fit. Once you guys are done catching up.” 

“Right,” Ben said, his ears pink. He picked up the bags and retreated. Vanya waited until she heard the faint sound of a door sliding open and closed, then she giggled. 

“You people are all strange,” Abhijat told them, holding out his hand for the square. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to change into clean clothes, eat, and rest. I’ll leave the access fob outside my room.” 

“Help us move some furniture up here first,” Allison said. 

Abhijat looked surprised. “Move…? Oh, right. Here, pass me that.” He walked over to the wall beside the names and slotted the access square into a line in the wall that Allison hadn’t seen. “This sector’s on basic for everything, but that’ll do.” He pressed some buttons on a list of glyphs that lit up beside the slot. Vanya startled to her feet as furniture folded out of the floor. It was all white and blocky—a long couch, a coffee table, some chairs. “Good enough?”

“More than,” Allison said, poking at the couch. It felt solid enough. The seating surface was soft and firm.

“Wake me up in a few hours if I’m not out,” Abhijat said. He took the square out of the line, picked up a bag and some energy bars and walked down the slope.

Vanya and Allison re-stacked everything onto the table and settled into the couch with energy bars. “I didn’t think… those three,” Vanya said, with an awkward glance at the slope leading up. 

“Really? They were pretty close growing up.” 

“Diego kinda became a loner after a while. I used to try and talk to him since I figured we were both loners, but he never really liked me.” 

“He didn’t like me either,” Allison said. Puberty had made Diego sullen and antisocial, as far as she remembered. She hadn’t really been surprised when he’d left, or when he’d been kicked out of the police academy. “I bailed him out of jail once. We were in our early twenties, back when he first started doing the vigilante thing. He hung around the crime scene a bit too long and got arrested by the cops. The burglar he picked up filed assault charges.” 

“He could do that?” Vanya said, with a startled laugh. “The burglar, that is.” 

“Sure. The burglar was just some guy in his late twenties who held up a 7/11 for cash. Diego stabbed him in two places—he nearly bled out. He wanted to nail Diego for attempted murder. I had to bring in a set of very good lawyers to make that go away. Fixers, really. Not that I ever told him it was me. I made the lawyers pretend that they were secretly from 7/11.” 

“Why?” 

“His detective friend who called me, Patch, said she’d suggested that he use his phone call to call me. I’d starred in a few great films at that point, was making A-lister money. He refused. Said he’d rather do time than take my money, because I hadn’t come by it honestly.” Allison shook her head slowly. “Our brothers have always been so goddamned stubborn. Proud, too. That’s their problem.” 

“Klaus and Ben aren’t like that,” Vanya said. She nibbled on her energy bar. 

“They are, they just hide it better.” Allison propped her legs up on the table. “About what Abhijat said, about Mom… are you okay?” 

“I think so. I mean. It isn’t her. Doctor Alexander. Just looked like her. Diego was the one who was really shaken up.” 

“Why did you people tell her everything?” 

“I… I had a good feeling about her.” Vanya gave Allison a helpless look. “Maybe that was a bad call, but. I had a good feeling. It turned out to be a big mess after all. Me dragging Diego and Klaus here.” 

“Nah. You had a working plan and you stuck to it. Decent logic too. I think we should still go along with it. Take out the lab and all that. Stop time travel.” 

Vanya stared at Allison for a while, then at the energy bar in her hands. “Allison,” she said, in a much softer voice. “I didn’t really. Want to come here to kill Dad to save you. I mean. It’d be a good thing if it happened but. I mainly wanted to destroy the time machine lab.” 

“It’d have fixed our problems,” Allison said, patting Vanya’s shoulder carefully.

“I just wanted it all to be finished. All of this. I want to go back to before. I thought maybe. If I destroyed the time lab, maybe that’d happen. I could go back. To when I was just a third chair, a music teacher. When I was normal. Dad was right. I’m not good for anything. When I got abilities, all I did was literally destroy everything. I’m selfish and weak.” 

Allison stared at Vanya in surprise. She leaned over, hugging Vanya to her, tucking her sister under her chin and patting her shoulder. “I’ve been working in Hollywood for a while. Surrounded by the world’s highest paid scriptwriters. Famous directors. Producers. Executives. People who tell the world’s loudest, most valuable, most influential stories. I’ve read a lot of scripts about powerful women going wrong. And you know what?”

Vanya stayed silent, though she made a soft hiccuping sound and glanced up at Allison. 

Allison smiled tightly. “Only men think that women don’t have the strength for power.”

#

“City’s on high alert now,” Abhijat said, after a morning foray with Allison. “They’ve shut down the main access to the Wells labs. Which means, unless you can fly there or tunnel through concrete and steelglass, we’re stuck for now.”

“Couldn’t you get access somehow?” Diego asked. They’d summoned up an extra couch beside the door, and he was sprawled on it with Ben. Klaus was having one of his infamous hour-long showers. 

“Eventually, probably. They’ve revoked all my Commander access codes, unsurprisingly. My younger self probably has a new set now.” Abhijat was sitting primly on a chair. A holographic projection of the City-Eternal spun in the air before him, conjured from the stolen soldier bracers. He had highlighted a section a quarter a way down from the surface in yellow. “I need a few days to work out an alternative way in.” 

“I don’t think any of us would’ve learned how to fly or tunnel in a few days,” Diego said. He glanced at Ben, who was leaning against his flank and reading something intently that he’d projected in the air from another set of bracers. Diego squinted. “What are _you_ doing?”

“Trying to learn the local language,” Ben said absently. His fingers flicked up, summoning more incomprehensible glyphs. “It’s actually quite close to Mandarin, once you figure out how it got changed. There’s a logic behind it.” 

“And that’s gonna help?” Diego asked, puzzled. He didn’t see how picking up reading the local language would help. 

“Probably not. It’s just an intellectual curiosity. Something I’m doing in between working out temporal math. There’s a lot of theory available on the public database, surprisingly,” Ben said. 

“Right,” Diego said, because of course he had a brother who was decoding a futuristic language as an ‘intellectual curiosity’ in between studying a new school of math. The same brother who’d spent the night moaning and spreading his legs while Diego had fingered him open— 

“Anyway, depending on how far the gap that has to be bridged is, I might still be able to get us all across,” Ben said, oblivious to the way Diego shifted surreptitiously. “I’d still like a better plan than ‘Find a way into the Wells laboratory and get Vanya to destroy all the things’ though.” 

“That was my plan,” Vanya admitted. She looked embarrassed. “Sorry.” 

“I like it,” Diego said. The best plans were simple, in his opinion.

“You would,” Allison said. She and Vanya were listening in on a few military channels through earpieces Abhijat had produced. “None of us are bulletproof though, so I’d also like to have a better plan. And I’d also like to know where Dad is. Both versions. And Five.”

“And Luther,” Ben said, clearly as a gesture of kindness. Allison offered him a wan smile. 

“Luther and Five haven’t been caught yet, we know that for sure. Though since someone leaked Five’s description to the military, I’m guessing Dad knows Five’s out for blood,” Vanya said. 

“Quite possibly, telling everything to Doctor Alexander was not the best of ideas,” Abhijat said, with a pointed stare at Vanya. “She _was_ the head of the Academy for a while. Until she became very ill with a wasting disease. You pretty much confessed everything to the enemy.” 

“I liked her,” Vanya said, unrepentant. 

“I like her too,” Abhijat said. He patted his arm. “She still shot me twice with concussive blasts. Over separate occasions. Nearly took my arm off.” 

“You probably deserved it,” Diego muttered. He shifted against Ben to look over Ben’s shoulder. Couldn’t read the text—couldn’t even read Mandarin—but it was comforting, listening to Ben breathe. 

“I don’t dispute that,” Abhijat said, “but just for your reference, in case it isn’t incredibly obvious, she’s not your mother. Doctor Alexander’s just as ruthless as Reginald in her own way.” 

“I just thought it might help,” Vanya said, staring at her hands. 

“Doesn’t matter. We’re in trouble either way,” Diego said. He squirmed a little, restless. Diego had never really been the sort of person to handle keeping a low profile. “Abhijat, you said it should be safe to walk around in this area, right?” 

“If you don’t start any fights and don’t leave the zone, sure,” Abhijat said. He paused. “Mind you, I haven’t known any of you for very long, and I already have very little faith that you’d be able to follow those simple stipulations.” 

“I grew up with Diego and I don’t have that kinda faith,” Allison told Diego. “Trouble follows you around like a kitten on steroids.”

“I’ll take Ben along,” Diego said. 

“How does that help?” Allison retorted. 

“Ouch,” Ben said, pretending to be hurt. He didn’t look up from the glyphs. “I don’t want to go out for a walk. I don’t see why it’s necessary.” He flicked up another line of glyphs.

“‘Enhance 224 to 176’,” Diego said, quoting Blade Runner. He smirked when Ben stiffened and glanced at him over his shoulder. “C’mon. We’re in the future. No one’s actively trying to kill us right now. We should take a look around.” 

“Really,” Ben said, though he tried to hide a grin, shutting off the bracer feed. “What about Klaus?”

“We’ll be back before he’s done,” Diego said. It remained a mystery to Diego even after all these years how someone could spend so goddamned long in the bath. He was fairly sure Klaus wasn’t even masturbating or sleeping. 

“If the two of you get caught, we’re not going to bother rescuing you,” Allison told them, though she smirked as Diego made a rude gesture. Ben was still protesting half-heartedly as Diego tugged him out of the apartment block. He looked pretty even in the simple ‘basic’ clothes that their sisters and Abhijat had scrounged up from the supply centres, waifish and elegant. Though—and maybe Diego was a little biased—Diego suspected that Ben probably looked good in anything. Just like Klaus.

“Did you know Allison was in the Blade Runner remake?” Ben said, as Diego picked a direction and started to walk. 

“Sequel, not remake. Yeah. I watched it.” Diego made a face. 

“Why? You didn’t like it?”

“I liked it overall… just that… well… I will never. Ever be able to forget seeing our sister’s boobs in high definition on a cinema screen.” Ben started to laugh. Diego cuffed him lightly on the shoulder. “Yeah, you laugh. Fuck. For a month or so after cops kept asking me for her number. Also, that particular scene, eugh. It was just weird. Was her character and some AI that was overlaying herself on some sex worker character. The way they made the faces clip together, blech. It was like Allison was sleeping with someone who was two people mashed together. Which I think was what they were aiming for, but I kept pinging between ‘This scene is so weird’ and ‘God I never wanted to know what Allison looked like topless’.” 

“She’s a movie star,” Ben said, with a light shrug. “And it’s her body.” 

“I don’t deny that, it’s just. It was Allison. Our _sister_. I was so glad I watched that film on my own.” Diego hesitated. “Wished you were there though. I don’t know why… I knew Klaus could summon you, I just never got around to looking for him.” 

“He tried to be hard to find. He acts like he isn’t, but he’s ashamed. Of the drugs. Of himself.” Ben glanced at Diego soberly. “He isn’t happy. Hasn’t been, for a while.”

“Don’t think any of the rest of you ended up having happy lives.” 

“You did?” 

“Up until all that apocalyptic shit went down? Actually, yeah. It wasn’t much, sure. But I had friends. I liked my job, my boss. The guys at the ring. I liked trying to make a difference on patrol, in small ways. I don’t need much to be happy.” Patch liked to tease Diego about being brooding and grim, but Diego liked to think of it as just his game face. Off duty, he was fine. Just because he was a private person didn’t mean he was unhappy. He didn’t mind being alone. He liked the quiet.

“That’s good.” Ben smiled warmly at him. “I’m glad you were.” 

Diego started to answer and hesitated as they walked out into a larger, busier space. Most of the human traffic was dressed simply like they were. Many of them lounged on street benches, reading things on their wrist feeds or talking to each other. There was a strange unhurried quality to the noise, an orderly look to it that was unsettling. Diego was used to filthy alleys and the violent outbursts that spat out from humanity when parts of it were compressed to breaking point, from poverty or drugs or despair. He lived his nights in the cracks, not so much mending them but trying to keep them from breaking deeper. This—

“Looks weird,” Ben said. He was watching some people queuing to enter a food shop of some kind. “Notice something funny?” 

“Yeah, what?” Like Ben, Diego kept his voice low. 

“No kids.” 

“Maybe all the kids are at school.” 

“Nobody looks happy,” Ben said, frowning. “But. Everything’s free, isn’t it?” 

“Basic stuff’s free. If I had to wear shit like this and eat energy bars all the time, I don’t think I’d be that happy either.” Nobody looked particularly depressed, though. Just. Chronically bored. Was that even a thing? They walked slowly through the level, keeping to themselves. No one even shot them a second glance. “Klaus said he couldn’t sense any ghosts in the City-Eternal.”

“Not at all?” Ben looked surprised. “Huh. That makes sense.”

“It does?” 

“I only have a fundamental grasp of temporal math right now, but it’s clear that there’s a spatial distortion around the equation where we are now—”

“I was following you until ‘fundamental grasp’,” Diego told him. 

Ben shot him a quick, apologetic grin. “Oh, right. Uh. Ghosts are in many ways expressions of time. Frozen snapshots of temporal factors. Fragile. I’m not surprised that there aren’t any ghosts in the vicinity of the Wells laboratory, if that’s what’s causing the distortion.” Diego chuckled. “What?” Ben said. 

“It’s just. Things are so fucked up right now and I’m not even that worried. I keep thinking, with all you guys here, things will work out.” 

“That attitude is probably why the Vanya thing even happened in the first place,” Ben said, though he let out a startled laugh as Diego tugged him into a quiet spot behind the rows of cubical shops, out of sight of the main street. 

“Yeah well, you weren’t there during the Vanya thing.”

“I was.”

“You know what I mean.” Diego kissed Ben on the nose. “Everything okay?” 

“Other than our father being out to kill us and—”

“Other than that. And us being stuck in this future and. Never mind. Bad question.” 

Ben grinned. He pressed himself against Diego, brushing his lips against the old scar on his head. Diego curled his arm around Ben’s waist, stroking his back. “Someday I want to know how you got all your scars,” Ben said. 

“Not all of them make for a great story,” Diego said. He nudged a kiss over Ben’s mouth and grinned as Ben licked eagerly against his teeth, into his mouth. Ben was a quick study, in this and in all things. He rubbed against Diego as they kissed, his fingers trailing teasingly from Diego’s shoulder to his chest. Diego grabbed Ben’s wrist before he could rub his fingers over Diego’s nipple piercing. “Ah-ah.” 

“I can’t help it. Every time I even look at you I’m gonna know that’s under your clothes.” 

“It’s just a piercing,” Diego said. One that both Klaus and Ben seemed fascinated with. The way they’d lavished attention on it and on him all night… Diego’s hips twitched against Ben’s and Ben grinned knowingly up at him, kissing his jaw, mouthing over his ear. “We should head back,” Ben murmured. 

“Yeah? Maybe I’m not done stretching my legs. I haven’t been getting my usual amount of exercise over the last few days.” Diego nipped Ben’s throat. Fingers clutched against the back of his neck. 

“I can think of other forms of exercis…” Ben went very still. Diego looked up sharply, just in time to watch Doctor Alexander briskly walking past the alley. She hadn’t noticed them. “Holy shit,” Ben whispered, wide-eyed. “Dad really… Wow.” 

“Yeah.” Diego reluctantly disentangled himself from Ben. “C’mon. We should follow her.”


	14. Chapter 14

Given Ben’s luck to date, he wasn’t in the least surprised that Doctor Alexander was walking straight toward the hideout. 

Now he understood why Diego still looked shaken in unguarded moments. Ben had loved Mother in his own way, but he had loved her in the way Five had loved her. They did not truly see Mother as their mother because they’d seen the schematics, read their father’s books on robotics, guessed the math and her code. Maybe that was why Mother never persisted in naming Five, never gave Ben a more suitable name. She’d known they’d never mistake her as something human. 

To see the progenitor of Mother was a shock, but it wasn’t one that disoriented him. Ben had always guessed that there’d been an original version because while Sir Reginald had given Mother her name and his surname, there was nothing like affection between them. Sir Reginald had always ignored Mother where he could, or dismissed her when he could not. She was a monument that he had made in another’s name, and monuments were, at best, inadequate memories of pain. 

Doctor Alexander drew glances in her beautiful coat and the sharp click of her boots, but she ignored all the looks as she strode on out of the sector toward the disused paths. No one bothered to follow her. Ben followed Diego’s lead as they tailed her past shuttered stalls into corridors of dormant doors. She stopped outside the door of the apartment block, checked something at her wrist, and turned around. 

Diego and Ben were hiding behind a dusty pile of crates against the wall. “You might as well come out,” Alexander said briskly. 

Ben looked down the path just as Five walked into view, Cashew at his heels. “Thought I’d get you alone sooner or later,” Five said. His hands were pressed into the pockets of his blazer. “This doesn’t have to be difficult.”

“I’m trying to help you, you fool,” Alexander said, annoyed. 

“Now that’s something I’ve never been called before,” Five said. He smiled sharply. “It’s a pity. You really do look like her.” 

Diego walked out of hiding. “Maybe we should hear what she has to say.” 

Five frowned at him. “Please. Don’t tell me you’re getting sentimental just because dear old Dad modeled a caretaker robot on her. Not very long ago you were all for helping Vanya blow up the Wells labs. Which means you people would’ve killed her anyway. Doctor Grace Alexander here is one of the key inventors of the Wells Machine.” 

“Not anymore,” Alexander said. Her jaw was clenched. “Not exactly.” 

In the dead silence that followed, Cashew yawned. “Are we going to kill her or not? If not, let’s move. I’m sleepy and I don’t trust any of you to carry me.” 

“We’ll see what she has to say,” Ben decided. He walked over to Diego and gently pushed the small of his back. Diego contented himself with a final warning glance at Five before walking over to the door and scanning the access square.

Inside, Allison jumped to her feet, her hands going to her mouth as she looked Doctor Alexander over. Doctor Alexander gave her an appraising stare before walking in and surveying the room, her mouth pursed. “Thought you’d hide down here,” she told Abhijat, who had been busy disassembling one of the guns they’d stolen along with the soldier uniforms. “You’ve always been predictable.” 

“Nice to see you again too, Doctor,” Abhijat said, not bothering to rise from where he was seated cross-legged on the floor.

“These people tell me that Reginald has gone around the bend,” Alexander said, with a nod at Vanya as Ben and the others filed in around her and closed the door. 

“You know my opinion on Reginald. He hasn’t changed that much over time.” Abhijat set the pieces of the gun down. 

“Did you manage to…?” Diego glanced at Five, who shook his head, walked over to the coffee table, and swiped an energy bar. He perched on a chair and began to eat. Cashew sat beside Abhijat. “I’ll go get Klaus,” Diego said, and walked up the slope. Left to himself, Ben sat on the smaller couch. 

“You see Luther out there?” Allison asked Five. 

“We didn’t cross paths,” Five said. Diego and Klaus reappeared, settling on the couch beside Ben. “Good, now we’re all here. Speak.” 

“This is the brother you called Five?” Alexander asked Klaus. “The… natural time-traveler?” 

“Of _course_ you told her everything,” Five said, disgusted. “Having mommy issues at your age is pathetic, by the way.”

“Hey,” Diego said, frowning at Five. “It was a group decision.”

“It was my decision,” Vanya said quietly. “Yes. That’s him.” 

“That explains things. You’re all too late, by the way. If your intention was to come here to destroy the Wells laboratory before the Machine’s inception. Not that it was even a really viable idea in the first place. I’m going to make a wild guess and say it was Abhijat’s.” Alexander glanced at Abhijat. 

“Guilty,” Abhijat said.

She sniffed. “That’s what happens when you look at a problem and try to apply a military solution to it. They always think things can be fixed by blowing something up.” 

“What do you mean, we’re too late?” Ben asked. 

“Reginald anticipated your plans. He arrived some time before you people did. I believe he got in contact with… with himself. The younger version of himself in this timeline. Passed over a packet of plans,” Alexander said grimly. “In the event that you manage to breach the Wells laboratory, either Reginald will upload the data packet into the public network.” 

“Plans for the Wells Machine,” Five guessed. At Alexander’s nod, Five let out a sharp laugh. “Clever old man. No wonder I couldn’t find him. He thinks he’s already won. Nothing to do now but sit back and watch the show.”

“Why did he go to all the trouble of shooting Ben and kidnapping us, then?” Allison said, bewildered. 

Five looked pointedly at Alexander. “Presumably he doesn’t want certain people in this world killed in the event of an apocalypse. Once he realized he seemingly couldn’t kill Ben, he likely thought it’d be easier to stash him somewhere. Have his younger self arrange for the rest of you to get arrested. He’s buying himself time to finish the time machine. Clever.” 

“Not clever. Reckless. The potential paradox has already begun to destabilise the temporal equation. The math is clear, but Reginald doesn’t want to see it.” Alexander’s eyes were hard. 

“Why didn’t he just open the packet and read it?” Ben asked, then he thought about it a little more and added, “Of course. Pride. He still wants to have been the one to invent the Wells Machine without any help.” Ben paused. “Without any help but Doctor Alexander’s,” he guessed. 

“I’ve withdrawn my own participation, but it’s likely that Reginald will still be able to complete the plans without my help, even if he never opens the package,” Alexander said, her mouth set into a thin line. “And he doesn’t intend to stop. I’ve talked to him.” 

“Withdrawn?” Abhijat said, surprised. 

Alexander laughed mirthlessly. “I’ve never had anything to prove, Commander. And faced with clear evidence that my work would lead to the worst of all possible results? That it’ll twist the people I love, lead to war, damage reality itself? Obviously, I’m willing to destroy it.” 

“A reasonably intelligent person could’ve intuited all those results before creating something like a time machine,” Five said, inspecting his fingernails. 

Alexander looked away, hugging herself. “I suppose. I’ve never denied being proud. And I’ve always been fascinated by stories about time travel. The good and the bad. I’ve never read ones involving a war. That’s life for you,” she said, her lip curling. “Yes, I confess. I should have known. Humanity always inevitably uses dangerous new technology for war, and I should have known better, I know that now. That’s why I want to fix it.”

“But you said we’re too late,” Allison said. 

“Too late to prevent the invention of the Wells Machine, perhaps,” Alexander said, “but maybe not too late to sabotage it.”

#

Klaus dozed off a few times while everyone was making plans because it wasn’t as though he could contribute and the reality of their situation was giving him a headache. There were two Sir Reginalds out there. _Two_. Shouldn’t that mean more trouble than what they’d already seen? Klaus had a sinking feeling everyone had maybe missed something.

He woke up with a yawn when Diego scooped him up. Klaus blew Five a kiss when Five frowned at them both. Five sniffed and turned back to the set of equations that he and Ben had projected over the whole floor. “Ben?” Diego asked. 

“I’ll catch up,” Ben said, distracted. Doctor Alexander had already left, and Abhijat was curled with Cashew on the couch, snoring gently. Their sisters had already retired for the night. “I don’t know if Doctor Alexander’s right about the paradox causing the distortion,” Ben told Five. “Looking at the math, the distortion only began when we arrived. If the packet caused the distortion, then it should’ve begun when Dad arrived in this timeline.” 

Five glanced at what Ben was looking at. “I thought that’d be the case. In which case, she’s right. We can still sabotage the invention. We need to narrow down exactly what the source of the distortion is. Hypothetically, I think it’s probably me.” 

“Hypothetically,” Ben said, sounding amused. As Diego shook his head and made his way up the slope, Klaus could hear his brothers getting into a spirited and incomprehensible argument. 

Klaus started to snigger by the time Diego got them to their room and scanned the door open. “What?” Diego said, with a look of mock annoyance. “Also, you can walk.” 

“But you’re doing so well,” Klaus said. He gestured behind them. “Besides, we’ve just been thrown over for math. I’m deeply wounded.” Klaus clutched dramatically at his heart. 

“Pretty sure I’ve seen Ben like this before.” Diego walked toward the bed and hissed as Klaus pressed his thumb over the piercing, through his thin shirt. “I _will_ drop you,” Diego threatened. 

“You won’t,” Klaus said, running his tongue over his upper lip, “because if I get a concussion or something then you won’t be getting your dick wet.” 

Diego let out a snort. He bounced Klaus on the bed and pulled off Klaus’ shoes before working on his own boots. Klaus grinned, lying in a sprawl, tickling his fingers up and down Diego’s muscular arm. When Diego climbed on top of him, he didn’t bend for a kiss. He watched Klaus carefully instead, keeping his weight off Klaus on his elbows. “You all right?” Diego asked. 

“Why the sudden concern?” Klaus wriggled hopefully, rubbing against Diego’s firm belly. 

“Haven’t been checking in like I should. I know it’s hard. Coming off an addiction.” 

“I got clean in ‘Nam,” Klaus said. He didn’t mean the words to come out as edged as they did. 

“Okay,” Diego said. He kissed Klaus’ forehead apologetically. Only days ago, Klaus would’ve accepted the apology, or said something sardonic, rolled Diego over to bite his throat. Now he tickled the short hairs on the back of Diego’s neck with his fingertips and closed his eyes. 

“I mean. It wasn’t exactly hard to get high in ‘Nam if I wanted to. Army had a lot of… supplies. I just. It was Dave. For the first time in a long time, he made me _not_ want to numb the world away. Even though it was pretty tempting. The ghosts you see in ‘Nam… I tried not to kill anyone, but in a war…” Everyone Klaus had known in ‘Nam had been surrounded by ghosts. It was from the ghosts who hated and haunted his friends that Klaus had started to pick up Vietnamese. He’d learned how to say _Why are you here?_ like the locals. Learned every possible curse. Klaus could understand their hate. 

Diego rolled off Klaus, lying on his flank and looking at him. No pity, no judgment. “You’re stronger than you think.” 

“Because I had to be. I had to learn. How to send my own ghosts away. Though I haven’t really had much luck with the others. Anyway.” Klaus snuggled over, kissing Diego between the eyes. “I nearly relapsed when I got back. Everything hurt. I even missed the platoon. Very nearly missed the war.” 

“Heard that about veterans,” Diego said softly. "It's hard to come home from a war." 

“It’s been messy so far,” Klaus said, brushing a kiss over Diego’s mouth, “but I wouldn’t change it for the world.” 

“I’d change some of it if I could.” Diego kissed him back, slow and lingering. “Be nice to do this without having to worry about tomorrow. Without people out there trying to kill you, without—”

“I was _trying_ to have a nice sentimental moment,” Klaus said, though he snickered as he pushed Diego on his back and squirmed on top, “and now you’ve ruined it.” 

“I prefer being accurate,” Diego said. He kissed Klaus as they pulled at their clothes, kicking off pants, hauling off shirts. Klaus had always known that people desired him. He was lucky to be born looking the way he did, he knew that. He’d used that over the years and never thought twice about it. There was something sweetly flattering about the way Diego looked at him still, the frankness of his gaze. Diego knew everything worth knowing about Klaus and wanted him anyway. Just like Ben. 

“My turn,” Diego said, when Klaus tried to shift down his body. He rolled them over, kissing Klaus’ throat, growling as Klaus flicked at Diego’s pierced nipple. “Later,” Diego promised him. He kissed his way down Klaus’ skinny chest, past his ribs. 

“You’ve done that before?” Klaus tried to imagine Diego on his knees before someone else, opening his mouth to be fucked. _Diego_. 

“Yeah,” Diego said. He looked puzzled at Klaus’ surprise. “What? I’m not selfish. I’ll go down on people if they want me to.” 

“Ben is so going to regret choosing math over this,” Klaus said. He grinned and spread his legs as Diego sniffed, leaning up on his elbows to watch Diego press worshipful kisses down to his belly, to run his tongue up the musky crease between Klaus’ thigh and pelvis. 

Diego didn’t bother with further teasing when Klaus rocked his hips up impatiently. There was a little bit of awkwardness as Diego took Klaus into his mouth, as though he wasn’t as used to this as his casual words indicated. Frowning in concentration, Diego held Klaus down and took him slowly deeper, careful of his teeth. Diego was breathing in eager shallow huffs, as though Diego was the one on his back with someone this gorgeous between his legs, touching him with reverent lust. 

Klaus jerked against Diego’s mouth as he sucked, clenching his hands into fists on the bed. Diego choked, shifting back and getting his hand around what he couldn’t swallow. “Why do you have a gag reflex when you can hold your breath indefinitely?” Klaus asked, but Diego rolled his eyes instead of answering and bobbed his head down again. Klaus whined and rubbed the heel of one foot down Diego’s back as Diego’s cheeks hollowed around him, easing Klaus slowly deeper until he was nudged against the back of Diego’s throat. Klaus ran shaky fingers over Diego’s short hair, scratching over his shoulders as he whined. He wanted more. He wanted—

“You guys seriously got started without me,” Ben said. Klaus flinched and Diego made an annoyed noise as he instinctively pulled against Diego’s grip. Klaus hadn’t even heard the door opening. He twisted on the bed, open-mouthed and panting as Ben sauntered over and leaned down to kiss him, to trail those elegant long fingers over his throat as though Klaus was something more precious than he was. 

Still. It wasn’t in Klaus’ nature to be willing to lie silent, even if it was to be adored. _You like to try and test people_ , Dave used to say, Dave, who’d been planning on going home after the war to go into social work, something good, something that could make a difference. _I’m an asshole, that’s why,_ Klaus had liked to say, grinning to hide his hurt, because in the first flush of love any criticism could hurt. _It’s because you don’t believe in love,_ Dave would say, _you don’t believe that anyone could really love you. I love you, Klaus. I’ll say it again, as many times as you want until you believe it._ Klaus had believed it in the end and it hadn’t mattered anyway, so what had been the point of all that? Fate was a glorious fuckup, and so was he. 

“You’re the one who thought math was more exciting than having some fun,” Klaus said, because he knew Ben would sigh and bite him. He hadn’t expected the laugh after that, or Ben rearing back to strip off his clothes. 

“You can’t guilt me for wanting to iron out a few details with Five. We are literally playing with reality,” Ben said. 

“Things work out?” Diego asked, his voice already rusty. His breaths were hot against Klaus’ spit-wet cock, and as Klaus growled and squirmed in protest Diego held him down and smirked. 

“Think so, yes.” Ben leaned over to pull Diego into a lingering kiss, one that Diego returned eagerly, pulling back only when Ben’s hand stroked down his chest. 

“Jesus, you’re obsessed,” Diego said, laughing as he batted Ben’s hand away from the nipple ring. “Later.” 

“It’s shiny,” Ben said. He caught Diego’s hand instead, meeting his eyes playfully as he licked his fingertips, catching the roughened pads with his teeth. 

“Hey, you two. Pay attention to me,” Klaus commanded, digging his heel into Diego’s back. Diego let out a snort of laughter even as Ben obligingly pulled back to give Klaus a playful peck on the nose. “What do I have to do to get you obsessed with _me_?” Klaus asked, pretending to pout. “Pierce my dick?” 

“Do people really do that?” Ben asked, actually looking down Klaus’ body as a reflex, which was kind of adorable. 

“I’ve seen it,” Diego said, as he leaned off the bed to sort through the bag of supplies around the side. “Guy who had it done said it made fucking more interesting, and he was right…” Diego trailed off when he realized both Ben and Klaus were staring at him. “The two of you are doing that thing again. Come on. Just because I like living alone doesn’t mean I was a nun.” 

“I’m having to rethink everything about you,” Klaus said, rubbing his eyes. 

“He’s seen Allison’s boobs,” Ben said. 

“In _cinema!_ ” Diego yelped. Klaus shot him a look of horror. “In a fucking film! Where. She was fucking a woman. Two women. Something like that.”

Klaus frowned. “Allison did films like that? And you watched them?” 

“It was the Blade Runner sequel and I swear, if you weren’t so pretty I’d walk out right now and leave the two of you to it, you goddamned troll,” Diego told Ben, who snickered and shifted over to press an apologetic kiss on Diego’s throat. Diego grumbled but let Ben lick a stripe up between his chest, groaning as Ben playfully picked up the silver nipple ring in his teeth and tugged. 

“Ben,” Klaus begged. He tried to touch himself to relieve the ache and Ben caught his wrist. Ben obligingly wormed down to kiss Klaus’ knuckles, his fingers, and finally, the tip of his cock, laving curious little licks over the cap as Diego found lube and microfilm condoms in the supplies. At least stuff like that had also been free, which had convinced Klaus that the future was pretty enlightened, apocalypse and weird lack of ghosts and all. 

It shouldn’t have been that much of a shock when Diego pressed slicked fingers against his hole, but when Klaus hissed, Ben looked up sharply and Diego went still. “Okay?” Diego asked, stroking Klaus’ thigh with his free hand. 

“If you do that to me, I’m gonna want more than fingers,” Klaus said. He hadn’t meant to sound brittle at all, but Ben quickly entwined the fingers of one of their hands together, kissing their knuckles, while Diego sat back. 

“We can do me,” Diego said, with a casual shrug, “but just as a heads up, I need a lot of prep.” 

Ben’s eyes were round, but he said, “I’m up to try it too.” 

“Maybe not yet,” Diego said, even as Klaus said, “Uh, you probably need to be eased into this since it’ll be your first time. Diego, just. Yeah. C’mon then.”

“Sure?” 

“Sure,” Klaus said, even though the last time he’d had someone within him it was Dave. It had been quick. They’d found somewhere quiet, a rare bit of privacy, the day before that final brutal foray, what a shitshow that had been—

“Klaus,” Ben said gently. He squeezed Klaus’ hand. Klaus shut his eyes, took a breath, and let go of his demons.

“I want to,” Klaus said, when he saw how quiet Diego had gone. He managed a rakish grin, tilting his legs wider. “Also, I’m actually clean, while I can’t really say that about you.” 

“You’re such a jackass. I don’t know why I even bother,” Diego said, though he kissed Klaus’ knee, his stubble ticklish against the skin. “Is that why you take so goddamned long in the bath?”

“At least I don’t eat raw eggs,” Klaus said, making a face. “Ben saw you. When he was haunting you for a bit.”

“What does that have to do with anything?” Diego glowered at them. 

“Salmonella,” Ben muttered, nearly under his breath. “It was so gross. I don’t know why I let you kiss me with that mouth.” 

Klaus started to laugh, only for his laughter to hitch into a moan as Diego growled and pressed in a slicked finger. Ben kissed their hands again and shifted back down to lick his cock, grasping it and stroking with his free hand as Diego watched them both with a hungry stare. Prep felt like it took forever, and Diego refused to be hurried. By the time Diego was rolling the microfilm onto his cock, Klaus was hoarse and whimpering, well past impatience as Diego gently rolled him onto his hands and knees. Klaus arched with a low cry of satisfaction as Diego pressed inside him. He tried to grind himself deeper, but Diego cursed and caught his hips and held him still, making him take what he was given. 

“Diego—” Klaus choked out. Ben kissed away his impatience, hands clutching at his cheek, his throat, their kisses wet with breathless lust. Ben chased the sweat beading down Klaus’ throat with his tongue and gasped as Klaus turned to kiss his palm, sucking on the fingers he could reach.

“Ben, how about you sit up against the wall,” Diego said huskily, as he pushed deeper, deeper yet. “Yeah, over there.” Ben sat in front of Klaus, looking over at Diego curiously, then he yelped as Klaus grabbed his hips and sucked him down, too desperate to care about finesse. “Look at that,” Diego whispered, as Klaus fit all of Ben down his throat. “I’m going to move, so. That okay with you, Klaus?” 

Klaus made an indignant just-get-on-with-it sound that got a laugh from Diego and a groan from Ben. He tugged at Ben’s hips, but Ben stayed still, petting his shoulders, his hair. Klaus tried to move against Diego, or at least move against Ben when Diego started rocking into him, but it was too good being held down like this, caught between Diego and Ben, listening to them moan as they took their pleasure from him. Klaus scratched at Ben’s hips until Ben started to thrust against him, carefully at first, then deeper, the way Klaus wanted it, Ben’s hands tangled into his hair as he gasped Klaus’ name and fucked down his throat. Diego said something strangled. He curled fingers into a tight fist around Klaus’ cock for him to fuck into and tried to follow Ben’s rhythm, only to give up and curse as Klaus clenched down around him, driving against Klaus instead, hard enough that Klaus had to brace himself against Ben. God, it was good to be so full. 

“Klaus,” Ben groaned, “ _Klaus_ , I… Klaus.” His hips stuttered, cock pulsing in Klaus’ mouth. 

Klaus drank what he got gratefully, swallowing it all as Ben sank back against the wall with shallow gasps. Klaus pulled back, breathing hard, nuzzling the wet root of Ben’s cock and breathing in the musk, Ben’s scent. Orgasm was a brilliant shock. Klaus went gratefully limp, coasting on the buzz, loose and relaxed as Ben hauled him up for a kiss, deep and slow, licking his mouth clean. Diego pressed down over Klaus’ back, still so deep. He kissed Ben over Klaus’ shoulder, his hips shifting in little urgent thrusts. Ben’s fingers stroked down the curve of Klaus’ ass, slipping between his cleft, and Diego let out a hoarse curse and shook into his own release as Ben touched the thick base of his cock, running his fingertips over Klaus’ stretched hole. 

Diego looked so shattered that it was Ben who climbed off the bed to dispose of the microfilm and get towels to wipe them down. Klaus shot them both a cheeky grin as Ben curled on the bed to the right, with Diego between him and Klaus. “Not bad,” Klaus told Diego. “I have some pointers. For the next round.”

“Fuck off,” Diego said hoarsely, his eyes closed. “I’m tired now and we’re meant to save reality tomorrow or something. Besides, you did almost none of the work.” 

“Mm, I can make up for that,” Klaus said. He leaned over, licking a long stripe up from Diego’s ribs, curling his tongue over the piercing. Diego yelped, grabbing for Klaus’ sweat-soaked curls. 

“We really need to get some rest,” Diego growled, half-hearted. He hissed as Ben caught the lobe of his ear delicately in his teeth and tugged, and Klaus laughed as Diego cursed and pulled Ben over for a kiss.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is a two chapter update :3

In the morning Doctor Alexander was arrested for treason, property damage, and a dozen other charges, which threw a wrench into things. “Best laid plans and all that,” Five said, as they watched the newscast during breakfast. 

“She shouldn’t have come here personally. It would’ve drawn suspicion—she doesn’t have any reasonable cause to come to this part of the city,” Abhijat said. He shook his head slowly. “Grace, Grace.”

“Back to square one?” Diego asked. 

“I wish that were the case. No. If they aren’t already on their way here, they will be soon,” Abhijat said. He didn’t look fazed by the prospect. 

“Right. We’ll split up. I’ll go and get her, in case she hasn’t done what she was meant to do. The rest of you get a move on like we planned,” Five said briskly. 

“I’ll go with you,” Ben said, which got him a frown. 

“No offense, but you wouldn’t be able to keep up.” 

“Full offense, but we both agreed on the math yesterday and Alexander’s essential to the proof,” Ben shot back. He stared at Five evenly and it was Five who blew a sigh and looked away. 

“Fine. Let’s go. Now.” 

“Wait, what?” Diego sat up sharply. “Just like that? Ben—”

“The rest of you need to follow Abhijat to the agreed place,” Ben cut in. “After that, we’ll just have to hope for the best.” 

“Then it’s decided.” Abhijat rose to his feet. “It actually has been a pleasure.” 

“Not for me,” Ben said, though he smiled faintly as he shook Abhijat’s hand. He nodded at Cashew and hugged his sisters before Klaus pulled him into a tight embrace, pressing his mouth to his neck and breathing in. Diego clapped Ben on the shoulder, squeezing his arm. There wasn’t much else left to say. 

Cashew padded out on their heels as Five and Ben headed out of the apartment block. “What?” he said, when they glanced at him in surprise. “You people don’t know shit about the city. I do.”

“We’ve got maps,” Ben said. He was dressed back in his stolen soldier’s gear, while Five had insisted on wearing the goddamned blazer even though it made him stand out. 

“Yeah, while you fuck around trying to read those I’d die of old age.” Cashew scampered forward to take the lead. “Now come on.” 

“I thought you were a housecat,” Ben said, as they jogged to follow. 

“You know how many people are willing to eat housecats when energy bars are all they can get?” Cashew shuddered. “I literally taste worse than dogs because hello, hypercarnivore, but you don’t see people eating dogs in this part of the world somehow. Humans.”

Ben shot Five a look, and Five sniffed. “I felt sorry for him when I found him moping near where the Minerva was buried.” 

“Cats don’t _mope_ ,” Cashew said imperiously, “I was just surveying the situation. Come on. There’s an old service shaft here with one of those pressure plate lifts. The City-Eternal stopped using them after there were a few horrific accidents, but I figure I still have at least seven lives to spare.” 

“I don’t understand cat people,” Five muttered. 

The service shaft lift that Cashew led them to wasn’t on the wrist feed maps that Abhijat had given them. At least smugness could look cute on cats. “One version of Sir Reginald is likely going to be with Doctor Alexander,” Five said, as they ascended. “Only logical.”

“Only logical,” Ben agreed. 

“Do you think he knows?” Five asked. 

“Judging from that journal we read, not entirely. But I rechecked the math when I woke up.” 

“So did I.” Five blew out a sigh. He rolled his shoulders, limbering up. “I’ll try to clear the way. I know your number of summons per day are limited—”

“Not anymore,” Ben said. 

Five stared at Ben appraisingly for a long moment. He smiled sharply. “Then this is going to be more fun than I thought.” 

“I never liked this part,” Ben said, watching the tiny hologram of the city above his wrist. They were rising rapidly toward where Abhijat had figured Alexander would be. 

“I remember,” Five said. He gave Ben a sidelong look. “That’s partly why I wanted to come by myself.” 

“Thanks for the thought.” 

“Not really.” Five looked away. “Reluctant soldiers are poor soldiers.” 

“I’ll manage,” Ben said. He waited, but Five didn’t look inclined to elaborate. “I thought you’d ask.”

“About what?” 

“Diego and Klaus.” 

Five let out a snort. “I don’t exactly have a leg to stand on with regards to unconventional relationships.” 

“Can we not do the sibling bonding thing right now?” Cashew asked from where he sat. “It gives me a bad feeling, and the two of you don’t exactly have my number of lives.” 

Security was waiting for them as they emerged from the lift shaft onto the restricted floor. Five snapped out of sight, emerging from the air behind the line of fire even as Ben hastily called Them into being, blocking up the passage right in front of him with a mass of tentacles. He pushed the Snake-Them forward, commanded it to _eat_ , and grit his teeth against the stink of burning rot as energy blasts slammed into the tentacles. Someone screamed. There were bursts of scattered fire. By the time Ben withdrew part of Them back through the Gate, Five was inspecting a rifle, sighting down its muzzle. The Snake-Them chittered in delight as Ben called it over and onto his shoulders. 

“I think I’m mildly disgusted,” said Cashew from the lift shaft, “and I’ve eaten week-old rat.” 

“Keep moving, cat,” Five said, with a nod down the corridor, “or we’ll feed you to that thing.” 

“This is animal abuse,” Cashew said sourly, though he leaped over the worst of the bloodstains. 

It became a slog closer to the holding cells, with bigger and bigger blocks of heavily armed soldiers manning kill zones at the end of corridors. This wasn’t like the military section that Ben and Allison had gone to when they’d mistakenly rescued Abhijat. “They knew we could come for her,” Ben said, as they took cover in a side room on another killing floor. 

“That’s what I was counting on,” Five said, his grin wide over a too-young face flecked with blood. “More for us.”

Fewer to face their siblings. Ben nodded. He peeked out and ducked back into the room at a barrage of energy blasts. Squeezing his eyes shut, he reached through the Gate. They were starting to get unwilling, especially when the soldiers had begun resorting to fire. They didn’t like intense heat, intense light. The Snake-Them was a charred carcass a corridor away, and the Kraken-Them had grown sullen and reluctant. Ben reached deeper. 

“Ben?” Five said, tense. 

“Are his eyes meant to be glowing like that?” Cashew asked. Both of them sounded like they were growing further away. 

“Let me concentrate,” Ben grit out. He could see something in the intense dark, far from the Gate, something that prowled in the silence and watched him with a too-familiar amusement. They were more than the others, somehow. They were— 

_YOU_

—They were familiar, somehow, though Ben had never called Them before. He knew Them anyway, had always known Them—

_WE KNOW YOU_

—and as he yelled for Them into the void, forced his will on Them, They came closer to the Gate, chuckling with sly affection, and Ben finally, finally began to understand what They were. They were more than the dark between the stars. They had eaten him before and would eat him again because They somehow existed in a state in beyond Time—

_YOU KNOW US_

—for Ben was not the first to call upon Them and he would not be the last, and at the end of his days, whether by Their design or not, he too would fall through the Gate and be transformed by hunger. He had agreed to the price the first time he had opened the Gate, even though he had been too young to understand what it meant. As They came closer yet, Ben knew the truth.

_WE ARE YOU_

The Gatekeeper-Them surged through. At a superficial glance, They looked a little akin to a gigantic shadowy wolf, one with an ever-shifting number of heads. They howled through the door and in Their wake, even Ben choked on the intense flesh-rot of Their breath. Five vanished. There were screams. People tried to run. The wolf sang a mournful dirge as They killed and killed again. They still did not like this part. 

When there was no more noise but keening moans and laughter from the Gatekeeper, Ben walked out. “You’re still glowing,” Five said. He tried to look unruffled, standing so close to the chuckling, sobbing thing beside him. 

“It’ll pass,” Ben said. He nodded at the Gatekeeper and it started down the next corridor. “Not far now.” 

Doctor Alexander looked startled as they burst through the door to her cell. “What in God’s name are you two doing here?” she demanded, rising from her chair.

“You’re welcome,” Five said, folding his arms. “Sir Reginald?”

“Not here,” Doctor Alexander said. She grimaced. “We had quite an argument.” 

“Has it been done?” Ben asked.

“Obviously. How incompetent do you think I am? I surrendered myself to the authorities afterward.” 

“You did what,” Ben said, blinking. 

Alexander scowled, glancing behind Ben’s shoulder at the bloody corridors beyond. “By making a loud fuss about everything, I hoped to force Commander Singh into committing security forces to ‘defend’ me and so, hopefully, clear the way for you lot to get to where you were supposed to be.” 

Ben and the Gatekeeper started to laugh. Five slapped Ben on the arm. “Right. We’ll be on our way then,” Five grit out. 

“Wait.” Alexander pursed her lips. “There _is_ one more thing that you could do. Come with me. It isn’t far.”

#

“Stop worrying,” Allison told Diego as they hurried through the gloom of the disused corridor behind Abhijat. “Ben will be fine.”

“More than fine,” Abhijat said, checking something at his wrist. “Your brothers have started a full-scale panic at military command. They’re sending in reinforcements.” 

“What if he overextends himself?” Diego said, refusing to be comforted. “I wouldn’t really put it beyond Five to just punch him out.” 

“He told me that something changed. After he woke up. He’ll be fine,” Allison said, using all her acting training to project confidence. Diego muttered something she couldn’t catch. Allison glanced down their ragtag line. Klaus was taking up the rear, a rifle cradled in his arms, occasionally turning to check behind them. He looked oddly relaxed. Practiced, even. That wasn’t very Klaus-like, but since it didn’t faze Diego, Allison let it be. She drifted over to Vanya, who was visibly nervous. “You okay?” Allison asked softly.

“Yeah.” Vanya tried to smile. “No.”

“Great,” Diego said.

“Shut up, Diego,” Allison shot back. She patted Vanya on the shoulder. “You’d be fine.” 

“I’ve never even done what… what Five and Ben said I should do. Before. I need… if it’s too noisy, if I can’t focus… I don’t even have my violin…” 

“You will be fine,” Allison said. She smiled at Vanya, trying to look relaxed. “You’ll see. And after all this, let’s all get a goddamned drink.” 

“I’ll hold you to that,” Klaus said. 

They met only token resistance at the train depot that they surfaced at. Doctor Alexander had been as good as her word—the station link lockdown over the Wells Laboratory had been opened with her access codes. As Diego wiped his knives clean from the bodies and retrieved them, Abhijat climbed into the waiting pod cradled over the magnetic rail, checking the controls. “All aboard,” Abhijat said, gesturing toward the pod with a playful flourish. 

They shot out from the blocky hangar and into space. Behind Allison, Diego gasped in wonder. They were suspended on the rail over space, looking down into a yawning drop crossed with light and shoals of traffic, weaving through the arteries of the city. Forgetting her nervousness, Vanya was plastered to the side of the glass pod beside Klaus, her face bright with amazement. The pod dove, speeding towards a central white cube caught in dead space within the steel and glass arteries like a calcified heart. Delicate-looking lines spiked out from its flank at even intervals, somehow holding it aloft. As they got closer, Allison saw realized that each line was a thick cable as wide as she was tall. Each had huge glyphs painted on them in black and yellow. 

Diego sucked in a sharp breath. When Allison looked at him, he pointed wordlessly. One of the cables they were coming close to was dotted with a symbol at intervals. A circle and an umbrella. Abhijat glanced at them but said nothing when nobody asked. Their pod was dipping towards the white cube, until its smooth and seamless face was all that they could see. An entrance curled open as they got close enough for alarm. They were through. 

The pod fused to a stop in another cradle. Allison tensed. There were barriers set up, soldiers crouched in cover beyond. As she readied herself to shout a Rumour, Commander Singh stood up from one of the closest barriers and leaned his elbows over it. “I’d be impressed, except it’s probably egotistical to be impressed by myself,” he said. 

Abhijat chuckled. His hands were in his pockets. “And I’m a little disappointed. You should’ve given the order to open fire the moment we came through the entrance.” 

“If I’d wanted to murder the lot of you, sure.” Commander Singh looked at them one by one, his lips pressed into a thin seam. “Did you know that Mahmoud was in Doctor Alexander’s assigned security detail?” 

Abhijat straightened up, his eyes narrowed. “No. But of course he would have been. He’s a friend of hers, after all.” 

“Your new friends ripped him apart,” Commander Singh said, biting out each word like a blow. 

“He would have died anyway,” Abhijat said, even though it clearly hurt him to say it. “If not now, then in the future. You would see him die, in a war that you will help to start and eventually flee. Our children, too. You’ll tell yourself that it’s because you want something different for the world, but you’d know it’s because the death of everyone you love is the price you paid for being so _fucking_ stubborn to the bitter end.” 

Commander Singh clenched his hands tightly on the barrier. He looked away, grinding his teeth. “This thing that you want to do,” he said, in a harsher voice, “will it undo what has happened? To Mahmoud and the others?”

“I don’t know,” Abhijat said. 

“I never correct this terrible tendency towards brutal honesty then,” Commander Singh said. He didn’t wait for Abhijat to reply, instead leaning back against the barrier and glancing at his men. “Stand down,” he said. “Let them through.” 

They followed Abhijat through into a corridor, where soldiers filed past without a second glance. Diego was so tense that he flinched as the door at the end opened before they got close. A blast of energy spat through, catching Abhijat high in the shoulder. Diego tossed a knife. Beyond the door, there was a familiar shout of pain. 

Shit. Allison yelled, “I heard a R—” A blast of sound from around them made her yelp. 

“Come on, Number Three,” said their father from the speakers above. “Have you already forgotten our lessons? I’m disappointed.” 

She _had_ tried to Rumour Sir Reginald. A long, long time ago. She had looked him in the eyes and opened her mouth and he had struck her across the face before she’d gotten out a second word. Shut her in a dark room for days, entombing her in silence. She had been four, and all she had wanted from him was a puppy. She—

“Allison,” Vanya said. She squeezed her hand. 

She was no longer four. Allison smiled tightly at Vanya. “Remember what I said.” 

Diego and Klaus were settling a grimacing Abhijat against the wall. “Let’s go,” Diego said, a knife in each hand. Allison nodded, her hands clenched on her stolen pistol. They charged the door, bursting out into a cavernous room strung with webs of cables and glass screens. The centrepiece of the room was a dais, a glowing orange cube within festooned with cables and silver plating. It pulsed gently. 

The first Wells Machine, Allison surmised. She ducked behind some steel crates as energy bolts strafed the ground she’d been standing on. Vanya scrambled up beside her. Klaus and Diego had taken cover behind an overturned steel table on the other side. Bots and turrets were perched around the Machine, and beside it were two Sir Reginalds. The younger one in gray was intent on a console, ignoring them all, a headset with a yellow visor obscuring his eyes. The older one in a three-piece-suit and monocle had a rifle in his hands. He smiled humourlessly as he saw her. “Combat training, Number Three? About time.” 

Allison took a shot at him, one that crackled against a stasis shield around the Wells Machine and dissipated. “You’re too late,” said Sir Reginald, as the bots advanced slowly, despite Diego and Klaus trying to pick them off. “Go home, children. You’ve failed.” 

Vanya’s eyes were shut, her lips moving soundlessly. At Allison’s nudge, she flinched but didn’t move. “Can’t focus,” she whispered to Allison. “Can’t focus.” 

The lobby of the house. Sir Reginald shouting as he slapped a rhythm. The blasts of the bots were too loud for that, but— “I heard a—” Allison winced at the blast of sound, but she grinned to herself as Vanya blinked and relaxed. “I heard a—”

“Why even try,” Sir Reginald said, sounding annoyed. “They’re keyed to your voice and words, Number Three. I raised all of you. I know your weaknesses.”

“I heard a—” Allison looked back at Vanya at the next blast of sound, just in time to see Vanya get to her feet, her irises brilliant pools of light. She clenched her fists and the bots cracked apart with a shiver of force. As she stepped out of cover, Sir Reginald raised his rifle at her, only to snarl as Diego lunged over, tackling him to the ground. The younger Reginald turned around, freezing as Klaus trained his rifle on him. The fight on the ground was thankfully brief. Diego pinned their father down in an efficient arm lock. 

Vanya stepped toward the Wells Machine, her gaze intent. As she pressed her hands to it and closed her eyes, Sir Reginald growled, “Go on then, destroy it. The plans have already been uploaded.” 

“An amended copy has been,” Allison said, circling out of cover. She smiled at Sir Reginald. “Hell hath no fury as a woman pissed off, and all that. Doctor Alexander hacked the packet you queued for upload.” 

“This physical version of the Machine is finished,” the younger Reginald said coldly. “You’re still too late.” 

“Maybe. You never bothered to help Vanya,” Allison said, with a nod over at her sister. “You only tried to control her. After she scared you with what she could do. If you’d only bothered to understand her, you’d have understood what she could actually do.” 

“Telekinesis,” Sir Reginald said, though he narrowed his eyes.

“Can whatever that is blow up a moon?” Diego said. At Sir Reginald’s blink, Diego grinned. “Ben was right then. _Vanya’s_ the important one, not Five.” 

“The distorting factor,” said the younger Reginald, looking at Vanya as the air shimmered around her hands. A loud beeping spat from the console beside him, and he turned to read the scrolling glyphs. “That’s not possible. She’s… she’s somehow corrupting the data. The code, everything!” 

“Negation,” Sir Reginald breathed, staring hard at Vanya. “Of course. Destruction in its purest form. That’s what Number Seven can do. Her power channels destruction. Enough to break a planet.”

“Enough to erase an idea,” Allison said. 

“Or at least roundly fuck your day up,” Klaus added, “which I’ll settle for, to be honest.”

“And her name is ‘Vanya’,” Diego said, cuffing the back of Sir Reginald’s head—or he tried to. The air around them shimmered. Sir Reginald’s form turned briefly translucent, Diego’s palm passing harmlessly through the air. As he blinked, puzzled, there was a grinding sound from the Wells Machine. The orange light was beginning to fracture along deep rents. The air itself around them was turning a familiar bluish colour. Lightning forked through it, striking Sir Reginald, who disappeared with a soundless scream. Diego jumped back and onto his feet. More lightning, through the door, earthing itself in Abhijat’s body. His body turned incandescent and disappeared, never there. 

Allison yelped, trying to get closer to Vanya. “What’s happening?”

“You’ve broken the temporal equation!” the remaining Reginald said, staring at the light around them in horror. “You’ve… My God. Grace!” He ran for the doorway. Klaus raised his rifle, sighting down it, and flinched as lightning struck Reginald in the back. He fell to the floor, unmoving. 

Allison grabbed Vanya’s shoulder and Vanya shivered. The Wells Machine cracked open, its orange light subsuming into a cradle of lightning that forked upward into the lab, shattering equipment and cracking the roof open. Vanya sagged into Allison’s arms and Diego hastily hauled them both away from the dais. 

“Now what?” Klaus asked, as lightning danced around them. 

“I guess this is the end,” Allison said. She hugged Vanya and Diego, and Klaus stared at them for a moment before lacing his fingers with Diego’s. “I love you,” she told them. 

“See you all on the other side,” Vanya said. She curled an arm around Allison and patted Diego’s back.

Diego stared at the light as it earthed itself wildly along the floor. “Five was right,” Diego said, as he hugged his sisters back. “This isn’t so bad.” 

“I…” Klaus flinched as the wall to his right caved in. Something huge skidded to a stop, swerving until its flank was facing them. It was the Minerva. 

“But how?” Allison gasped, even as a slat of light opened. Five beckoned urgently at them. 

“Move!” he yelled. Diego shoved Klaus toward the Minerva. Somehow they tumbled through without getting struck. Within was a stripped down space thick with open wiring and unfinished panels. Cashew and Ben were in the cockpit, frantic over the controls. 

“Let’s go, go!” Five called to them.

“Easier said than done, we’re in the eye of a fucking temporal storm and this fucking prototype is probably not even fully functional I don’t even—” The rest of Cashew’s protest was swallowed in a burst of brilliant blue light. 

In the silence and dark that remained, dust thickened quickly over the newly empty floor.


	16. Chapter 16

epilogue

In a world where time travel never existed, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated on 22 November 1963. There was nothing supernatural about the murder.

J.C.R. Licklider, not Reginald Hargreeves, was appointed Head of the Behavioural Sciences and Command and Control programs at the Defense Department’s Advanced Research Projects Agency. Under Licklider, the ARPANET project was expanded instead of limited, the progenitor of the Internet, which would grow organically at an exponential rate. It became home to a deepening morass of tribalism, conspiracies, fearmongering, populism, and anti-intellectualism. This would, among many things, create a world in the throes of late-stage capitalism that was cognisant but largely indifferent to its fate, the catalyst that Sir Reginald and the Academy had hoped to divert. 

In 1989, an average of 250 babies were still born during the exact minute of the Correction. That was the way of things. Their mothers had, save in one strange but still natural instance, already known they were pregnant. Of these 250 children, there were a few in particular who were born just as normal as the others, if in circumstances less traumatic to their mothers. None of them had powers, but powers had always been the least interesting part of who they were and would become. 

Technology progressed along increasingly human-centric, resource-hungry lines.

In 2019—

Day 1

The alarm went off and Ben woke up.

He stared uncomprehendingly at the red blink of the digital clock, then yelped and sat up so quickly that he startled the cat curled over his feet. The large mackerel tabby jerked up and sank all of his claws into the only part of Ben’s leg that hadn’t been covered by the blanket. 

“ _Cashew_ ,” Ben hissed. The cat glared at him, hopped off the bed, and began to furiously wash a paw. Ben rubbed his eyes as he turned off the alarm. He was in a familiar/unfamiliar apartment, small and neat, its walls hung with framed limited edition alt-rock band posters. There were shelves of books close by in no particular order with well-thumbed spines, in no particular genre: Hofstadter, Asimov, Nietzsche, Angelou, Kanigel, Tolkien, Hawking, Jemisin, Rumi, more. There was—

Ben squeezed his eyes shut. He knew/did not know that he was in his second-floor apartment on the campus of the Institute for Advanced Study, which lay adjacent to Princeton. He knew/did not know that he was due to teach a class in commutative algebra in two hours. He knew/did not know that he always started off the day with coffee and some toast. He knew/did not know that he most definitely did not have a cat. 

Slowly, Ben got off the bed. He brushed his teeth with the familiar/unfamiliar bamboo toothbrush, took a quick shower, changed into familiar/unfamiliar clothes. His face looked marginally older in the mirror, and he needed a shave, which he attended to with fingers that didn’t tremble. His wardrobe did not have a leather jacket. 

In the tiny kitchen, the cat was sitting on the counter. It meowed loudly, leaping off and rubbing against Ben’s legs. Ben checked the fridge. “Apparently I don’t have milk and I think it isn’t good for cats anyway,” Ben told Cashew(?). The cat shot him a look of catlike disdain. It deigned to eat tuna from a tin that Ben found deep in his cabinets behind forgotten packs of instant noodles and rice crackers. Ben couldn’t find the expiry date on the tin, not even after coffee, but Cashew didn’t seem to care. 

After breakfast, he tried to pick Cashew up and got scratched again for his trouble. While applying antiseptic from a first aid kit that Ben remembered/didn’t remember updating a week ago, Ben said, “You’re just a normal cat now, aren’t you?”

Cashew gave him a look of contempt and washed his paw. After all, there was no such thing as a normal cat. 

Ben opened the window and let Cashew out. He went to class, because he was responsible, though he stumbled through familiar/unfamiliar material and dismissed the class five minutes early. As he sat down heavily at the table in the lecture hall, rubbing his eyes, one of the doors was shoved open. A tall man in his late 20s or early 30s walked in, a slim black case tucked under an arm. He had dark hair and intense eyes, and his skinny frame was enveloped in a navy blazer, a gray sweater, and jeans. He walked right up to Ben with a scowl.

“Can I help you?” Ben asked, trying to place the tall man in his not-there memory. 

“Jesus, I thought you of all people would’ve survived whatever the fuck happened intact,” said the man. “Can you still see the Gate? Call Them?” 

Ben startled up from the chair. He studied the man again, slowly this time. “…Five?” 

“Answer the question,” Five growled. He glanced briefly down at Ben’s notes and his lip curled. “Professor Kim, huh?” 

“That’s…” Ben took in a deep breath. He tried to look _within_ , in a way that had always been second nature. 

The Gate was gone. The price had never been paid. Ben blinked. Five was watching him keenly, and grunted. “Thought so. We’ve probably all lost our powers. Fantastic.” 

“Cashew can’t talk any longer either,” Ben said. 

“That cat shouldn’t even be in our timeline. Nor should we even be able to remember the previous timeline,” Five said, lowering his voice. “I spent the morning doing the math. The prototype Minerva worked, after a fashion. But not like it should have. It moved us the way my power moved us. Which should have damaged the temporal equation, but it didn’t. The paradox was absorbed instead.” 

“You found me quickly.” 

“I’m part of the IAS as well. Nearly the same field of study. Coincidence, or maybe not.” Five ran a hand through his hair, annoyed. “We should find the others. Come on.”

“I have a class in the evening,” Ben said weakly, though he got to his feet. No. That was the Ben-that-was talking. Professor Kim. “I’ll cancel it and take a leave of absence. You’re right. Where do we start?”

“There’s something called the Internet now,” Five said, setting down the black case on Ben’s desk. It was a console—(a laptop, Ben knew/did not know, a Surface Pro). As Ben shook himself, grimacing, Five glanced at him. “It helps if you don’t fight it. Time travel hangovers are always a bitch the first time around. Just let the new information come, or you’d get a serious migraine and it’ll feel like someone’s trying to choke you full of rotten cotton.” 

“Okay. Okay,” Ben said, breathing shallowly. 

“Allison’s probably the easiest to find if she’s still an actress. She won’t have the Hargreeves surname but her life should still be splashed over the internet.” Five brought up a browser and started typing furiously. 

“What’s your name now?” Ben asked once the dizziness started to pass. He concentrated. “I do actually know you. Or. Professor Kim did.” They were not brothers. They’d first met in the IAS over a faculty lunch, though they’d heard of each other before that of course, rarefied mathematics was a tiny field. “I—”

“Five is my name,” Five said shortly. “Here. Look. African-American + Actress + Allison.” He clicked on an IMDB link, and Allison smiled out at them from the profile picture. “Allison Spencer-Jordan.” 

“How would we get in touch?” Ben had no idea how to contact a Hollywood star. “Maybe if we try and figure out who’s her agent—”

“She lives in LA and I’ll be able to find the address on the internet. We should just break into her house.” Five closed the laptop. 

Ben pinched the bridge of his nose. “Or… we could ring the doorbell…” 

“Whatever. Come on. We’ve got a plane to catch.”

Day 10

“Monsieur Geistfeld.” Someone pushed at his elbow urgently. “Monsieur Geistfeld. Your coffee.”

Klaus looked up blearily. “Oh, you lifesaver,” he said, gratefully taking the steaming cup. “You angel. What would I do without you?” 

“Work yourself to death and sleep through the Spring/Summer show, quite likely,” Amanda said tartly. She smiled. Trim and tall and ruthlessly efficient, Klaus suspected that left to herself, his right-hand-woman Amanda could quite easily run the House of Chanel by herself, creativity department and all. 

Klaus yawned as he got to his feet, unsticking his face from the antique desk and the array of late-night sketches. “What day is it?”

“It’s four days to the show. Model fittings will begin in one hour. You have a scheduled lunch with Anna Wintour. You…” Amanda trailed off, looking at Klaus closely. “Are you feeling better, Monsieur?” 

Klaus forced a smile. “Why wouldn’t I be? And I’ve told you. My name is Klaus.”

“Of course, Monsieur Geistfeld,” Amanda said. The old argument made her grin faintly with relief. 

It had/had not been years, and Amanda refused to refer to Klaus with anything but the utmost deference, just like the rest of his team. Behind his back, they called him the Kaiser, a prodigal force, the youngest creative director ever named to the House of Chanel. Klaus rubbed his eyes. He’d had a blinding headache for days, at least one nervous breakdown, and—if Amanda hadn’t been watching him like a hawk—had been tempted to sneak out to get a hit. He was nowhere near New York. He didn’t even apparently live in New York. He. 

“Monsieur Geistfeld,” Amanda said, more gently. “Perhaps. A warm bath. I will have breakfast brought to your office at the flou atelier. Your favourite, millefeulle from Pierre Hermé.” 

“You do know how to bribe me,” Klaus said. He stumbled into the shower of his gorgeous neo-baroque Parisian flat. As Klaus breathed in the steam he remembered/didn’t remember the bland showers in the number of rehab centres he’d been in and out of. He’d shot up in one once, sniggering at the look of profound disappointment on Ben’s face. Nearly overdosed. 

Klaus held his skinny arms up under the spray. No tattoos. No track marks. He ate _salads_ now. He could no longer see ghosts. Opening his mouth, Klaus pressed the hot spray on his tongue and swallowed a brittle laugh. A bad dream. It’d all been a bad dream. Except some of it had been good enough to make the bad dream worthwhile, and now he missed it. 

He picked through his breakfast and was nearly unbearable through fittings at the atelier. As Amanda brought him another coffee, one of the staff walked over and whispered into her ear. She made a face, whispering back. The staff shrugged. “Madam Spencer-Jordan,” she said. 

“Allison Spencer-Jordan?” Amanda asked, surprised. “L'actrice Américaine?”

“Oui.” 

Klaus nearly spilled the coffee all over himself. “What?” 

Amanda smiled reassuringly at him. “It is nothing. A little disturbance at the door, very insistent. Probably, she wants an invitation to the show, but we are full. Americans, no?” 

“Is she alone?” Klaus demanded, rising to his feet. The staff shook her head.

“Monsieur Geistfeld,” Amanda said, shocked, as Klaus rounded the table and hurried out of the fitting room. He sprinted up the stairs, dodging staff and trailing Amanda and various assistants. Out to the front door, where a phalanx of security was politely remonstrating with a tall stranger. Beside him were Vanya and Allison, and—

“Ben!” Klaus squeezed past security and threw himself into Ben’s arms, kissing him hard on the mouth. Ben went completely still, and for a dizzying moment Klaus thought maybe he really was the only one who remembered—then Ben was kissing him back, holding him tight. 

There were gasps behind Klaus, a “Mon Dieu!” from Amanda, then Allison was pushing at their shoulders. “Inside, inside!” she said sharply. “The press!” 

Oops. There were blasts of light behind them as security let them all in and closed the doors. Klaus leaned away from Ben reluctantly, though Ben kept an arm around his waist. “Five?” Klaus asked the stranger. 

“Figures that _you’re_ somehow living it up in Paris,” Five said, though his mouth twitched. “We’ve definitely fallen into the darkest timeline.” 

“Where’s Diego?” Klaus asked, then caught himself and glanced over at Amanda. “Could you cancel lunch? Sorry.” 

Amanda looked scandalised. “Cancel lunch with Madam Wintour? _Monsieur_.” 

“ _Anna_ Wintour?” Allison said, sounding just as scandalised. 

“Who, what?” Ben looked puzzled. 

“Move it to tomorrow, or dinner, or whatever, please, thank you, my apologies, all that.” Klaus dragged them up to his office, closing the door pointedly on gawping staff. 

“You can’t cancel lunch with Anna Wintour,” Allison said, still shocked. 

“I have, I will, and I will send her a hundred black roses tomorrow as an apology and she will forgive me,” Klaus said. He frowned to himself. “Urgh. It’s so fucking weird how I know that when I shouldn’t.” 

“You’re telling me,” Allison said. She leaned a hip against Klaus’ desk. “The Creative Director of Chanel. What even the fuck.” 

Ben continued to look adorably bewildered. “Five and Ben found Allison first by looking her up on the internet,” Vanya said. She was dressed in a sober black shirt and pants. “Then Allison hit up her contacts and found me.” 

“New York Philharmonic,” Allison said, grinning. “How about that, sis.” 

Vanya blushed. “And then we happened to see you on the cover of a fashion magazine at a newsagent. Anyway, we haven’t found Diego. Or Luther.” 

“Cashew’s with me. It looks like he’s just a cat again? I think,” Ben said. 

“So what are you? Ooh, let me guess. Some big-time CEO. An author,” Klaus said, looking at Ben.

“Five and I teach math,” Ben said modestly. 

“ _You_ teach math. I don’t like students,” Five said, with a sniff. 

“Math teacher?” Somehow, Klaus hadn’t really expected that. 

“Professors. At the IAC,” Allison said, with a broad grin. 

“So if we follow this trend, maybe Diego is…” Klaus trailed off. He actually wasn’t sure. “Some. Fighting… boxing… champion?” 

“Or serving a life sentence in jail for murder,” Five said dourly. 

“My contacts are checking, but there are thousands of Diegos out there. Hundreds just in New York.” Allison said. Her smile faded. “As to Luther. I don’t know. He wasn’t with us in the Minerva, so. Who knows.” 

“We might find him,” Vanya said gently.

Allison exhaled. “Maybe. Or not. He chose to go his own way. That’s where we are right now. I’m in between gigs right now, so, I’m still free to keep looking—”

“You can walk in my show,” Klaus said, looking Allison over. “Vanya too.” 

“Really?” Allison brightened up. 

“Ummm no,” Vanya said hastily. “Not for me. Sorry.” 

“Just Allison then. I’ve already got a piece in mind, it wasn’t suitable for the model it was made for but it’ll be perfect for you. Come on,” Klaus said, waving Allison out of the study. “Ben?” 

Ben looked torn. “You seem like you’re going to be pretty busy. I’ve never been to Paris before. I’d like to go to the Louvre. Maybe we’ll catch up after.”

“I’ll go too,” Vanya volunteered. “Five?” Five shrugged and nodded. 

“I’ll have Amanda arrange some tickets,” Klaus said. He opened the door to the study and was quickly swallowed back into chaos. 

There were more fittings, more (unavoidable) press. Close to midnight, while considering the latest amended outfits in his apartment on the couch with his feet in Ben’s lap, Amanda gave him a call. “Monsieur Geistfeld,” she said apologetically. “You have an urgent and unusual call. From America.” 

“America?” Klaus closed the lookbook he’d been scribbling notes into, frowning. “I don’t remember having any American commitments.” 

“Not commitments.” Amanda coughed delicately. “It is the police. Do you want me to refer him to your lawyers?” 

“The police?” Klaus sat up. Ben shot him a startled look. “What’s that all about?”

“He would not say much. He says you know him? It is a Sergeant Diego García of the NYPD. He says it is about a photograph he saw on the internet today.” 

“Put him through,” Klaus said, grinning. He curled against Ben and set his phone to speaker when Amanda put him on hold. “Ben. You’ll want to hear this too.”

Day 100

Allison did not get to star in Blade Runner 2049, or in Avatar, or in Forgetting Sarah Marshall. She did not become the highest paid, most sought-after actress of her generation, not the way she was. Without powers, the weight of the world reasserted itself, and Allison was back to fighting for roles, smiling through temper. That was the way the world treated women who looked like her.

And yet. She persisted. 

It was not so bad. Allison had not starred in all of the films that she had loved making, but she had still made some of them. She had landed roles that helped her pay her rent, even if her pay was smaller, even if the roles were smaller, even if she had to fight every time to get somebody in on set who knew how to do her hair. 

It was not so bad, because Luther had been right. Somehow there was still Claire, even through different circumstances, a different father. Claire, with her snub nose and big hair and her giggling joyous love of stories. Claire, for whom every trial, every piece of suffering that Allison had/had not been through had been worth it. Claire, whom she would never hurt again, ever, ever.

Allison carried the fruit punch and the tray of snacks out into the back yard, where Claire was laughing on the poolside table, at the centre of attention with her hands held out. Ben and Vanya were busy constructing her Halloween costume over her shoulders, while Klaus prowled back and forth and consulted an iPad. Five lay on a deck chair close by, studying the process with a critical eye. 

“If she’s going as Princess Shuri, can’t you just call someone over at Marvel and get a mini version of the movie costume made?” Diego was asking Allison’s husband as she walked out toward them. "You _were_ in the film." 

“Nah,” Michael said, leaning over to help Allison with the tray. He kissed her on the cheek and set the snacks down on the table between him and Diego. “Think she’s having more fun this way. Besides, if Klaus builds the outfit, doesn’t that make it a genuine Chanel?”

“Excuse me, a genuine _Geistfeld_ ,” Klaus said, without looking up. The person he was on Facetime with said something with a laugh. “A genuine Carter-Geistfeld collaboration,” Klaus corrected. 

“You look great, sweetheart,” Allison told Claire, squeezing onto the deck chair beside Michael. 

“More purple!” Claire told Klaus and the iPad, and squeaked with laughter when Klaus pretended to stagger back in shock. 

“I don’t know about this trick or treating thing,” Diego said, eating a chip. “Lots of dangerous people out there. People in houses with guns. Dogs. Kidnappers. Shit happens every year.” 

“Have you seen this area? It’s gonna be fine,” Allison said dryly. “Diego. You are not going to freak out. You are also not going to stalk my daughter later and ruin her Halloween.” Diego scowled. 

Later, when Michael wandered off to get a refill for the fruit punch, Diego said quietly, “Does he know?” 

“Not really. It’s hard to explain,” Allison said. She’d thought about explaining. But what could she say? That she was from some alternative timeline? One where she had superpowers? She couldn’t risk the possibility of losing Claire. Or her new/not new marriage. She’d just told Michael that she’d met Klaus in Paris, and that all of her ‘new friends’ were actually Klaus’. “How are you guys doing?” 

Diego coughed. “Ben and I moved in with Klaus. He has a fancy townhouse in New York. Jesus, I don’t even.” 

“I know, right.” Allison chuckled. 

“I don’t even that he apparently got this rich by making clothes,” Diego said, wrinkling his nose. “ _Clothes_. Weird clothes.” 

“I heard that,” Klaus said from the pool. “It’s couture, you barbarian.” 

“I like the clothes,” Vanya said. 

“Same,” Ben agreed.

Diego ignored them, pulling out his phone and tabbing through the cracked screen. “Anyway. I wanted to show you something.” He passed the phone over. It was a small press article on NASA’s site, with a formal feature photograph of a man in an astronaut suit smiling in front of an American flag, his helmet tucked under an arm. Luther. 

Allison stared at the photograph for a while. She thought… she hadn’t been sure what she would think. In the back of her mind, she hadn’t really accepted that Luther was gone. He’d been looking for Sir Reginald’s own Engine, hadn’t he? He’d—

Claire shrieked with laughter. Vanya had tried putting a boot on her foot the wrong way around. “God, just, have a drink and get out of the way, I can’t stand watching this anymore,” Five groaned. He got up and playfully shouldered Vanya aside. “Ben and I are extremely overqualified for this,” he told Klaus as Vanya sank gratefully into a deck chair. 

“No you aren’t,” Klaus said, distracted as he adjusted Claire’s bracers. “You’re both less qualified than my interns.” 

“I think I’m good,” Allison said. She passed the phone back to Diego and smiled. She had loved Luther, but that was a long time ago. She hoped he was well, but she’d always been ready to let him go. “I’m doing great.”

Day 1,000

Diego burst into the townhouse, looking harried. “Sorry I’m late. I got changed at the precinct. We have to go. Don’t we have to go? I’m late?”

Ben didn’t even flinch from where he was sprawled in an armchair with a book, already fully dressed in an elegant navy suit with Cashew curled in his lap. “Klaus is still in the bathroom.” 

“What? We’ve got to be there in—” Diego checked his watch, “—one hour, and the traffic’s going to be fucked.” 

“Mm-hmm.” Ben glanced up at Diego and blinked. “Wow.” 

“…What?” Diego looked down over himself quickly, in case of some sort of terrible wardrobe malfunction. 

“Is that some kind of special uniform?” Ben set the book aside and uncurled from the armchair, looking Diego over appreciatively. Cashew scuttled away into the kitchen as Ben dusted fur off his clothes.

“It’s the formal uniform,” Diego said, very dryly. “You’re not serious.” Ben hummed as he ran his fingertips over the belt, then straightened up the lapels of the suit, catching his own lower lip in his teeth. Diego knew that speculative look. “We are already _so_ late. Don’t start.” 

“Gloves,” Ben said, grabbing Diego’s wrists and grinning as he set Diego’s white-gloved hands on his ass. “And a man in uniform.” 

Diego eyed him suspiciously, even as his mouth twitched. “Only yesterday you were lecturing me about the militarisation of police.” 

“So? What does that have to do with your uniform?” Ben raised his voice. “ _Klaus_. You really should see this.” 

“Coming, coming,” Klaus yelled from upstairs. “I can’t decide between the cravat or the drop-waisted faux fur coat.” 

“Just wear both,” Diego called back. 

“I’m not taking advice from anyone who still wears denim!” 

Ben chuckled. He leaned in to kiss Diego, a lingering hungry kiss, gasping as Diego squeezed his pert ass in response. “And how was your day, Captain?” 

Three homicides, one of which had been fucking horrifying, all things considered, at least they’d solved that one quickly on the evidence, given the DA enough— Diego shut the words away, kissing Ben back, catching his lower lip playfully in his teeth. “Getting better,” he murmured. “Hey, you guys free this weekend?”

“I can’t speak for Klaus, but I think I can manage the time. Why?” 

“My tía’s making her famous barbacoa and invited us along, and Mom says she isn’t gonna make any more excuses on our behalf,” Diego said cautiously.

“Sure. Sounds tasty. Looking forward to it.” 

“You would,” Diego said. Ben was easily bribed by food. 

“Why’re you worried? It’s been years. You’ve met _my_ parents.” Ben’s mouth curled wryly. “Strange as that feels like to say.” 

“Yeah.” Diego kissed Ben’s forehead. Sometimes when he looked at his mother/not Mother he still felt a jolt. “My abuelas are going to eat you two alive.” 

“It won’t be so bad,” Ben said firmly, even as there was a gasp from Klaus at the stairs. 

“Holy. Shit.” Klaus took the last of the stairs two at a time. He was ridiculously overdressed as usual, this time in a faux fur coat, some silvery shirt, and embroidered black pants so tight that they looked spray-painted on, but since it was Klaus, it worked. He looked the both of them up and down. “Diego.”

“Told you to come down,” Ben said. He kissed Diego on the jaw. 

“I mean, the fitting is a little tragic, and, the cut of that suit, ugh, but.” Klaus pressed himself against Diego’s back, rubbing himself against Diego’s ass. 

“Nope. No. We. Have to go,” Diego grit out. It took all his self-control to pull away. “I will physically drag the two of you there on time if I have to.”

“Fine, fine,” Ben said. He kissed Klaus on the mouth and ambled towards the door. Klaus grabbed Diego’s cap, putting it on his own head and grinning when Diego snatched it back. 

They made it with minutes to spare. As they sat down hurriedly in the box seats, Allison glowered at them. “You guys were cutting it close.” 

“Knew it,” Claire said. She grinned cheekily at Diego, who shrugged and sat down next to her, jerking his thumb at Klaus. 

“Yeah, you can blame your Uncle Klaus for that,” Diego said.

“I deny everything.” Klaus sat beside Diego even as Ben settled down next to Five. Before Ben could open his mouth, Klaus said, “Please no math this evening.”

“Wasn’t going to start,” Five said, slouched in his chair. “Though I’ll like your opinion on the most recent version of my proof.” 

“Email it over,” Ben said. At Allison’s pointed stare, Ben added contritely, “Later.” 

“Hush,” Allison said. 

The curtains were sweeping away from the stage, the applause roaring up from the audience in the thickening dark. The conductor bowed, then gestured in a flourish at Vanya, who smiled at the audience in her sparkling black suit and bowed deeply. She looked up to the box seats and her smile widened as her family waved back. Raising the violin to her shoulder, Vanya set her bow to the strings. Diego clasped Klaus’ fingers, even as Klaus pressed a palm over the hand that Ben had rested on Klaus’ knee. They waited for the music to start.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ben’s daily life routine is cribbed from this article because I’m lazy: https://www.wired.com/story/a-math-genius-blooms-late-and-conquers-his-field/  
> https://www.vogue.com/article/karl-lagerfeld-interiors-from-the-archives  
> Yes, Allison marries Michael B Jordan instead of Generic Patrick… :)

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!
> 
> If you liked this story, I recommend reading Charles Yu’s How to Live in a Science Fictional Universe, and Claire North’s First Fifteen Lives of Harry August.  
> \--  
> twitter: @manic_intent  
> tumblr: manic-intent.tumblr.com


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